Collections

Your question: Where can I find out more about the coins and medals I have?

We often in the Discovery Centre receive enquiries about coins and medals. Our Collections Online website provides information about many of the coins, medals and trade tokens in the collection. We currently have approximately 7500 coins online, 2800 medals online and 2800 trade tokens online!

The obverse of the host coin and featured a laureate bust of Charles III (mostly removed with the central dump) facing right. At the bottom of the overstrike is a spray of olive leaves with the artist's initial H at its centre.
Image: Naomi Andrzejeski
Source: Museum Victoria  

Melbourne Museum Discovery Centre

You can come into the Discovery Centre and make use of the library resources from 10am until 4.30pm, Tuesday to Saturday. You can also come in and look at the coins and medals we have on display in our reference drawers, featuring medals from the International Exhibitions held at the Royal Exhibition Building in 1880 and 1888.

Silver coin - Florin (Two shillings), 1947
Image: Unknown photographer
Source: Museum Victoria  

Australian Coins and Medals

The Numismatics Association of Australia provides links to many relevant websites, and has also published online the past issues of its Journal, which has many articles of interest on the history of Australian coins and medals. See also the website of the Numismatics Association of Victoria for its activities and journal.

The National Museum of Australia features convict tokens and agricultural medals on their website.

Reserve Bank of Australia’s Museum of Australian Currency Notes provides a timeline of Australian paper money and educational resources.

The ANZ Banking Museum also provides information about Australian currency, the museum tells the story of Australia's banking heritage through displays of items such as banknotes and coins, moneyboxes, office machines, firearms, gold-mining equipment and uniforms.

Penny coin from Australia 1920 (Kookaburra side)
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria  

Useful publications include:

Leslie Carlisle Australian historical medals, 1788-1988 (2008) available in the Melbourne Museum Discovery Centre.

World Coins and Medals

The British Museum’s Department of Coins and Medals provides a guide to books, web resources and associations. The site covers not just British coins and medals, but Roman, Greek, Oriental and modern coins, tokens, medals and paper money.

The Royal Numismatics Society (UK) has a web page of links to relevant web resources.

1930 Penny, proof coin
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria  

Useful publications include:

Standard Catalog of World Coins, published by Krause Publications. There are separate volumes now published for each century from the seventeenth century to the present.

And see the detailed book list at http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/departments/coins_and_medals/reading_list.asp

Got a question? Ask us!

Matilda swapped a life working as an engineer for a life curating the museum’s historical Engineering collection. She’s very curious about how stuff works, how it’s made and why. If a machine’s got a switch, she’ll definitely flick it.

Last week I visited a foundry in Melbourne that was casting a vital component for our restoration of the Great Melbourne Telescope. The original part of the telescope - the declination disc - had been modified and broken at some time in its history and was not repairable.

The Great Melbourne Telescope in its own house at the Melbourne Observatory, 1870. The red arrow points to the declination disc needing replacement.
Source: Museum Victoria  

This is the first part of the project to be made by a sand moulding or casting process very similar to that which was used in Ireland in the late 1860s. Our modern part is made from a type of cast iron invented in the 1940s which has magnesium added to give it properties that make it easier to shape. The electric induction furnace, which is used to melt the metal, was developed in the early 20th century.

A couple of weeks ago, Peter made a pattern out of wood for the casting. Tom next used the pattern to form a hollow in a sand mould. This kind of mould is a mixture of washed sand and a binder, made in two halves, and cured to retain its shape once the pattern is removed. The two halves of the mould were then closed, after a pouring spout, flow paths and risers (to allow the metal to flow to and fill all sections of the hollow) were added. Heavy weights on top ensured it remained closed when the metal was poured.

The sparks fly as Bryn takes a sample from the furnace for temperature testing.
Image: Matilda Vaughan
Source: Museum Victoria  

The pounded earth floor and the filtered light through the open doorways and skylights in the roof of the foundry transported me back in time. It was 7 AM and Bryn had already been awake for hours and the sparking pot of molten metal (spheroidal graphite iron) was his morning's labour. He tested its temperature and composition, turned the knob of the electric induction furnace's control panel, and gave the signal. After the removal of the slag crust, the metal was ready for pouring.

Bryn pours the molten metal into the next mould as Tom looks on. Our filled mould is on the floor behind them.
Image: Matilda Vaughan
Source: Museum Victoria  

Bryn added the final ingredients and carefully tipped the 1500°C molten metal into the pre-heated ladle. He then transported the ladle to the moulding area and poured it first into our waiting mould, and then onto the other smaller moulds. Being such a large casting, ours needed almost 24 hours to cool down before breaking open the mould.

The lower half of the sand mould, with the casting removed. The sand from the top half is in pieces in the background. The sand will be cleaned and reused, as will the molten scraps of metal.
Image: Matilda Vaughan
Source: Museum Victoria  

At 6 AM the following morning, Bryn was ready to break open the mould. The weights were removed and the upper part of the mould lifted away. Then the casting itself was lifted into the air and the sand and metal debris removed. It was then transported by the overhead mobile crane to the finishing room, where the hardened parts of the spout, risers and flow paths were ground and knocked off and the surfaces cleaned.

Bryn (left) with the pattern for our declination disc, and Tom (right) with the freshly removed casting. Note the four cylindrical 'risers' at the edge, the pouring pathways (almost like a running person) in the middle and the square shaped pouring spout (head of the running person). These pieces are reused for the next batch of metal.
Image: Matilda Vaughan
Source: Museum Victoria  

The next step for this part will be heat treatment to 'relax' the metal, followed by the final shaping and machining. It is a rare sight to see this process so close in our urban environment and one of the great aspects to working on restoration projects of this magnitude.

Links:

Great Melbourne Telescope website

Great Melbourne Telescope on Collections Online

Emily is a third-year History of Art student at the University of Birmingham. She worked at MV after winning a Global Challenge award which gives students opportunities to work overseas.

In August and September I spent six weeks in Museum Victoria's Humanities Department helping to plan for the Centenary of World War I exhibition, which will be held at the museum in 2014. My main focus was on a collection of magazines named Aussie published for soldiers during and after WWI.

At the end of my placement I came away eager to contribute more, however small, and link up Melbourne Museum's WWI centenary commemorations with those that will happen in the Birmingham. I set out to find any connections between Australia and the University of Birmingham relating to WWI.

Australian and New Zealand soldiers came to Birmingham in 1914 to be treated at the University of Birmingham’s Great Hall, then called the 1st Southern General Hospital (and it is where I will be graduating next summer). Looking through the university’s collections, I came across an embroidered quilt that was produced by convalescing soldiers. Made up of nine panels, it includes an Australian panel depicting a crown with ‘Australian Commonwealth Military Forces’ written on a scroll underneath and a New Zealand panel featuring an intricate fern with ‘NZ’ over the top.

Australian Servicemen embroidery detail on Matron Kathleen Lloyd's linen cloth.
Source: BIRRC-H0013, Research & Cultural Collections, University of Birmingham

New Zealand Regiment embroidery detail embroidery detail on Matron Kathleen Lloyd's linen cloth.
Source: BIRRC-H0013, Research & Cultural Collections, University of Birmingham  

I also found photos at the Birmingham Archives and Heritage collections, with wounded soldiers from Australia and Scotland posing with nurses in the grounds of the hospital. Museum Victoria also holds many photographs taken and postcards purchased by soldiers from their time in England during WWI.

Australian soldiers with nurses at the 1st Southern General Hospital, now the University of Birmingham's Great Hall.
Source: UA10/i/4, Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections, University of Birmingham  

In addition, in the university’s collections there is an interesting article in The Mermaid magazine, entitled ‘A Trip to Gallipoli’ by Percival M. Chadwick. He was a Civil Engineering Lecturer at the University of Birmingham who left in 1915 to go and fight in Gallipoli for twelve months, only to return to Birmingham again to be treated at the university in the 1^st Southern General Hospital. He was attached to the New Zealand Engineers working with Australian and New Zealand Infantry and Cavalry regiments including a Maori contingent. He states:

The officers with whom I worked gave me a homely welcome, and I speedily felt quite at ease among them.

I could reiterate what Percival M. Chadwick said about Australians, about my colleagues at Melbourne Museum. It was a pleasure working there and one of the most enjoyable work experiences I have had. I very much look forward to seeing what Melbourne Museum puts on in its centenary exhibition in 2014 and I hope it is a success for everyone.

References:

Links:

University of Birmingham collections

The Museum Victoria and Parks Victoria crew at the Grampians National Park in western Victoria have discovered some cool critters after the first six days of the intensive Grampians Bioscan survey. Why elaborate when I can just show you what I mean.

Museum Victoria and Parks Victoria crew walking through the stunning scenery of Grampians National Park.
Image: Heath Warwick
Source: Museum Victoria  

We've come face-to-face with the cute and furry, like the Yellow-footed Antechinus, Antechinus flavipes. These small mammals look a little like mice but they are not closely related. They are carnivorous, eating insects and small lizards. Females rear young in pouches until the young outgrow the pouch and they climb onto her back for a while. Males fight during breeding season, neglect to eat, and die within twelve days after mating.

Yellow-footed Antechinus, Antechinus flavipes.
Image: David Paul
Source: Museum Victoria  

There have been five frog encounters so far, including the endangered Growling Grass Frog, Litoria raniformis. The conservation genetics of this species is currently being studied by museum PhD student Claire Keely.

Growling Grass Frog, Litoria raniformis. The female is the larger frog on the left, the male is on the right.
Image: David Paul
Source: Museum Victoria  

Warm weather has given our researchers an opportunity to sample DNA from the local reptile populations. Here, a watchful Colin catches a Tiger Snake, Notechis scutatus, for a genetics project.

Colin with a captured Tiger Snake, Notechis scutatus.
Image: Patrick Honan
Source: Museum Victoria  

A friendly Stumpy-tail, Tiliqua rugosa, faced off with museum herpetologist Jo Sumner. These lizards give birth to live young, which is uncommon in reptiles since most lay eggs. Mating pairs usually follow one another around and maintain a life-long bond.

Jo holding a Stumpy-tail, Tiliqua rugosa.
Image: Steve Wright
Source: Museum Victoria  

We saw Australia's smallest freshwater crayfish (Western Swamp Crayfish, Gramastacus insolitus, about 3 cm long) and one of the largest (Glenelg River Spiny Crayfish, Euastacus bispinosus, about 15cm long). Both species are listed as endangered on DSE's Advisory List of Threatened Invertebrate Fauna in Victoria.

Left: Western Swamp Crayfish, Gramastacus insolitus. Right: Glenelg River Spiny Crayfish, Euastacus bispinosus.
Image: David Paul / Mark Norman
Source: Museum Victoria  

And species that dramatically transform from larval stages into adults, for example the Dobsonfly, Archichauliodes guttiferus. The aquatic larval stage lives in the rocks on river beds while the adult flies around the plants along the river bank.

Dobsonfly, Archichauliodes guttiferus. Left: aquatic larva Right: adult
Image: Blair Patullo / David Paul
Source: Museum Victoria  

And saving my favourite until last – the "Jabba-the-hut" spider, more officially known as a Badge Huntsman, Neosparassus diana.

Badge Huntsman, Neosparassus diana.
Image: Heath Warwick
Source: Museum Victoria  

We've also recorded Wedge-tailed Eagles and Powerful Owls. Stand by for a report on week two! 

The survey is being conducted with help from Parks Victoria's rangers and aims to document wildlife in the Grampians area. It involves over 60 museum staff and associates, including the Melbourne Herbarium and Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, and concludes at the end of November 2012.

Links:

MV Field Guide to Victorian Fauna app

MV Blog: posts from the Wilsons Prom Bioscan, October 2011

That celebrated mimic, the Superb Lyrebird, is the star of a new children's picture book published by Museum Victoria. Lyrebird! A True Story by Jackie Kerin is magnificently illustrated by Peter Gouldthorpe and was released just this week.

Cover of Lyrebird! A True Story by Jackie Kerin, illustrated by Peter Gouldthorpe.
Source: Museum Victoria  

Lyrebird! A True Story is based on the real tale of Edith Wilkinson and a a lyrebird she called 'James' who danced in Edith's Dandenongs garden in the 1930s. At the time, Superb Lyrebirds were believed to be shy and elusive, but James tolerated human audiences and performed for bird-watchers and ornithologists who arrived from around the globe. Upon a platform built on Edith's verandah rail, he became one of the first lyrebirds to be captured on film, and helped spread the reputation of these birds as uncanny imitators of the sounds around them.

Jackie first learned about James and Edith in 2007 from a 1933 book called The Lore of the Lyrebird by Ambrose Pratt. Therein he described an article he wrote about the unlikely pair in the 13 February 1932 edition of The Age. Jackie retrieved the article and from then on, she was hooked.

"I loved the story and thought that I could shape it into what I call a 'tellable tale' – take the story and put it into language for telling. I tell stories at schools and festivals and I was very interested in collecting some uniquely Australian stories," explains Jackie. "Also I like to encourage kids to connect with nature. And they're just such fabulous birds that we carry in our change purse or pocket, on the ten-cent coin. So I wrote a little story that I called Edith's Lyrebird." Her story won an award at the Woodford Folk Festival, then at the instigation of filmmaker Malcom McKinnon, Edith's Lyrebird was turned into a short film.

Creating a book was the next logical step, and Tasmanian illustrator and artist Peter Gouldthorpe was a natural choice to illustrate the book. As well as being a very fine landscape painter, Jackie says "he understands the importance of getting the animals and vegetation correct. I wanted a book for hungry eyes with lots of detail for kids to explore."

Jackie bird-watching in the Dandenongs while researching for Lyrebird!.
Source: Jackie Kerin  

Jackie researched the places and era of James and Edith. She read extensively about lyrebirds and explored the landscapes and bird life of the Dandenongs. "Edith had what they called a 'cut flower and foliage farm' on the south-west side of the mountain. During the Depression, flower gardening was a big industry up there. They'd have these flower shows with whole football ovals covered in flowers." Her photographs of Cloudehill Gardens in Olinda, situated on a former cut flower farm, helped provide the reference material Peter needed to recreate Edith's garden. Wayne Longmore and Rory O'Brien at Museum Victoria showed Peter and Jackie rare books and bird specimens so that they could capture details of Dandenongs birdlife and the nature of bird-watching in the 1930s.

MV photographer Jon Augier with a lyrebird specimen in the museum's photography studio. Studying specimens of Dandenongs bird species helped Peter Gouldthorpe get all the details right in his illustrations.
Source: Jackie Kerin  

The result is a book with many layers for readers to explore. "We've tried to include a sense of the seasons because the birds' mating and moulting are connected to the rhythmical seasons of the mountain." Throughout the illustrations there are the birds in Edith's garden that James mimicked, like the Yellow Robin, Laughing Kookaburra, and rosellas, and a there is a chart at the end of the book to identify them. Budding horticulturalists can also identify types of flowers and native flora.

The chart to help readers of Lyrebird! name the birds of Edith's garden.
Image: Peter Gouldthorpe
Source: Museum Victoria  

Jackie has also become quite fond of author Ambrose Pratt. "He was very passionate and his prose is very rich and fruity. He believed that the future was in the hands of children. He was very keen that people understand that if you care about the animals, you have to care about their environment."

Links:

Jackie Kerin's website

Lyrebird! A True Story on Facebook

Biography of Ambrose Pratt

What a change has been wrought in the Discovery Centre this week! A change to the structure of the Discovery Centre service has really been reflected in the physical space.

The new look Discovery Centre.
Image: Siobhan Motherway
Source: Museum Victoria  

We will no longer be offering a free internet and printing service, so the number of computers in the public space has been reduced down to one table – leaving two new tables full of interesting specimens to touch and explore. It has been lovely this morning to see family groups coming through and engaging with these collection objects that are at kid height!

A display of shells at one of the new Discovery Centre desks.
Image: Siobhan Motherway
Source: Museum Victoria  

An area with comfortable couches and seats allows for reading or informal chats with museum staff, and desk space with power points gives those with their own devices a place to plug in, charge up, and connect to the free museum wifi (just look for "museumpublic").

We have a beautiful new "...ology" display being installed up the back of the centre – when that is finished, we'll have a row of cases each devoted to a different discipline from the natural and earth sciences.

A King Crab on display in the Discovery Centre's new "...ology" display.
Image: Siobhan Motherway
Source: Museum Victoria  

Not everything is new, of course; we still have cases with skulls, spiders, worked stone tools – these collections have proven very useful over the years, allowing enquirers to do some of their own identification and investigation. And we - the intrepid Discovery Centre staff – are still here, ready to take your questions big or small! The Discovery Centre's new operating hours are 10am-4.30pm, Tuesday to Saturday. However, we're still available to take your questions online 24/7, at our Ask the Experts page.