Robert H. Thompson


Robert H. Thompson, FRNS, MCLIP, FSA, was a British numismatist, with a special interest in tokens and paranumismatica.

Contribution to numismatics

Thompson had a lifelong interest in numismatics, from his first article "Coin collecting" for his school magazine in 1959, to his most important article ‘Central or local production of seventeenth-century tokens’, published in the British Numismatic Journal of 1989, in which he successfully established that the vast majority of these were struck in London, most of them by engravers and coiners working at the Tower Mint. He made hundreds of contributions to journal and periodicals. Many of his shorter notes were connected with publication of the Norweb Collection of Tokens of the British Isles, 1575-1750 - the largest privately owned collection - was published in eight volumes in the Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles series, 1984 to 2011, and will be probably be seen as his greatest achievement. He became Librarian of the Royal Numismatic Society in 2010, and for the British Numismatic Society in 2011. He had previously been Librarian for the BNS from 1966 to 1981, for which he awarded that society’s Sanford Saltus Gold Medal for 1999.

Publications

SCBI = Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles
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