CHRIS HOWGEGO

Honorary Curator, Heberden Coin Room

Professor Chris Howgego

Contact
Email: chris.howgego@ashmus.ox.ac.uk
ORCID: 0000-0001-8504-7366

University of Oxford webpages

Faculty of Classics
Academia
Wolfson College, Oxford

Biography

Chris is an Honorary Curator of the Heberden Coin Room in the Ashmolean Museum and an Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. He is also Professor Emeritus of Greek and Roman Numismatics in the University of Oxford and holds an Honorary Professorship at the University of Warwick.

Chris joined the staff of the Ashmolean in 1988, initially as curator of Greek and Roman Coins. He became Acting Keeper of the Heberden Coin Room in 2005, and was Keeper from 2006 until 2023, subsequently holding a Research Keepership from 2023 until 2025.

He was lead curator for the new Money Gallery for the Ashmolean and supervised the creation of numismatic displays for 25 other galleries. He acted as Research Coordinator for the Ashmolean Museum from 2012 until 2020.

He is an Honorary Member of the Société royale de Numismatique de Belgique, a Corresponding Member of the American Numismatic Society, and holds the bronze and silver medals of the Norwegian Numismatic Society. He is also on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Austrian Archaeological Institute.

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Chris's research is linked by an interest in how ancient coinage can contribute to our understanding of history. He is the author of Ancient History from Coins, which is currently available in six languages, and has written widely on Roman coinage and history.

His interests have ranged across many relevant spheres of history, including economic, monetary, political and cultural. His first book was on countermarks on Roman Provincial Coinage (then called ‘Greek Imperials’), using that data to explore the relationships between coinage and the army, the movement of people, inflation and the function of coinage. Since then he has written on why ancient states struck coins, on the supply and use of money in the Roman world, on coin circulation and the integration of the Roman economy, on coinage and identity in the Roman provinces, on the process of monetisation of temperate Europe, and on the archaeologies of coinage.

Chris has been heavily involved in initiatives to further the online presentation of numismatic data. He was the founding Director of Roman Provincial Coinage Online and, with Professor Andrew Wilson, of the Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire Project. He continued as a co-director of RPC Online until 2024, and remains an active director of the Coin Hoards project. He is also part of the team which developed Iron Age Coins in Britain and Celtic Coin Index Digital.

He acts as an editor of the series Roman Imperial Coinage and Roman Provincial Coinage. He is the author of volume IV.4 of Roman Provincial Coinage. From Antoninus Pius to Commodus (AD 138– 192): Egypt, 2023. 

Chris's current research is focused on Roman hoards and hoarding in connection with the Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire Project.

Chris lectured on Roman Numismatics in the University of Oxford from 1988 until 2022.

 

Academic committee (research)

  • 2021 up to now, Scientific Advisory Board, Comittee member, Austrian Archeological Institute, Vienna, Austria

Editorial board

  • up to now, Roman Imperial Coinage
  • up to now, Roman Provincial Coinage

Honorary (academic) position

  • 2010 up to now, Honorary Professor, University of Warwick, Classics, Coventry, United Kingdom

Honour, award, prize, or distinction

  • 2016, 'Honorary member', Société royale de Numismatique de Belgique
  • 2014, 'Silver Medal', Norwegian Numismatic Society

Archaeology; Archaeology of Europe, the Mediterranean and the Levant; Classical Greek and Roman History; Historical Archaeology (incl. Industrial Archaeology); Historical studies; History and Archaeology

Featured publications