Dr Richard Kelleher

Senior Curator Medieval & Modern Money

Richard Kelleher obtained his BA (Hons) in Archaeology at King Alfred’s College, Winchester, in 2001 and his MA in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester in 2004. From 2008-2012, he was granted an AHRC-funded collaborative doctoral award at Durham University and the British Museum for his work “Coins, monetization and re-use in medieval England and Wales: new interpretations made possible by the Portable Antiquities Scheme”.

Following his position as Field Archaeologist with Wessex Archaeology (2001-2003), he was Museum Assistant at the British Museum’s Department of Coins and Medals (2004-2008); he was Coordinator of the Department’s Money and Medals Network (2008-2013) and then Project Curator (2012-2013). Richard is now Senior Curator Medieval and Modern Money at the Museum, where he has worked in the Department of Coins and Medals since 2013. Among his day-to-day curatorial duties, he has organized four displays: “Encounters: Money in the Age of Discovery”, “The Dollar: Rise of a Global Currency”, “Currencies of Conflict: Siege and Emergency Money from Antiquity to WWII”, and “Inflation, Identity and Nationalism: German Emergency Money between the wars”.

He is the author of the book “A History of Medieval Coinage in England” and almost 20 articles on English medieval coinage published in academic journals and conference proceedings. His PhD thesis is to be published by the British Numismatic Society in 2018 under the title “Money in the medieval town and countryside: coin finds from England and Wales 1066-1544”, alongside a popular book on “Tudor and Stuart Hammered Coinage”. He is currently working on a corpus and die study of the coins of Crusader Edessa, on ‘Medieval European Coinage’ volume 16: “The Latin East” (with Julian Baker, Robert Kool and Ioanna Rapti) and on the ‘Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles, Tudor and Stuart Coins in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge’. In addition, he investigates the later medieval coin finds from Rendlesham as part of the Leverhulme-funded project “Lordship and Landscape in East Anglia CE 400-800”. At the Fitzwilliam Museum, he is currently organizing an exhibition entitled “Money, Image and Power in Tudor and Stuart England” which will open in 2019. He has edited the ‘Money and Medals Newsletter’ since 2006 and its website since 2008, and has contributed more than 100 articles to metal-detecting and coin-collecting magazines.

He won the Royal Numismatic Society’s Lhotka Prize 2016 for “A History of Coinage in Medieval England” and the British Numismatic Society’s Blunt Prize 2014, and, since 2002, has been a member of the British Numismatic Society (Council Member 2006-2009, Website Officer 2007, Secretary 2008-2009).

Email: rmk34@cam.ac.uk

Publications

‘The Coins’. In David Baker, Selborne Priory: Excavations 1953-1971, Hampshire Field Club Monograph 12 (2015).
'The re-use of coins in medieval England and Wales c.1050–1550: An introductory survey’, Yorkshire Numismatist 4 (2012), pp.183-200.
'The Tutbury hoard', with Williams, G., in Tutbury: ‘A Castle Firmly Built’: Archaeological and historical investigations at Tutbury Castle, Staffordshire by Malcolm Hislop, Mark Kincey and Gareth Williams. British Archaeological Reports 546 (2011): pp-pp. 62-87.
'Saxon, Medieval and Post-Medieval Coins', with Cooke, N., in Settling the Ebbsfleet Valley, Vol. 4 Saxon and Later Finds and Environmental Reports, by Andrews, P., Mepham, L., Schuster, J. and Stevens, C.J., (Oxford Wessex Archaeology 2011): 19-21.
'Medieval and post-medieval coins' in 'St Mary’s church, Barnes: archaeological investigations, 1978-83' by Cowie, R. and McCracken, S. Surrey Archaeological Collections 96 (2011): pp-pp.
'Coins in Context: Archaeology, Treasure and the Portable Antiquities Scheme', with Leins, I, in The British Museum and the Future of Numismatics. Proceedings of a conference held to mark the 150th anniversary of the British Museum's Department of Coins and Medals 2011, Edited by B. Cook (London: British Museum Press. 2011): 18-24.
‘The 'English Custom': folding coins in medieval England’. Treasure Hunting Magazine (April 2010): 79-82.
‘Coins and Tokens’ in Beresford, G. Caldecote: The development and desertion of a Hertfordshire village. Society for Medieval Archaeology 2009: 211-212.
‘A lead impression of a French coin from Somerset’. Spink’s Numismatic Circular CXVI. 6 (2008): 297-298.
‘Medieval and later coins from near Orford Castle, Suffolk’. British Numismatic Journal 78 (2008): 248-254.
‘Roman, Medieval and Later Coins from the Vintry, City of London’, with Leins, I. Numismatic Chronicle 168 (2008): 167-240.
'Chronology' timeline. In Money: A History. Eagleton, C. & Williams, J. (London: British Museum Press. 2007) :258-259
‘Gold is the strength, the sinnewes of the world: Continental gold and Tudor England’. British Numismatic Journal 77 (2007): 210-225.
‘1343 and all that: previously unnoticed documents relating to England’s new gold and silver coins’, with C. Eagleton, British Numismatic Journal 76 (2006): 340-344.