Note su Augustus Spijkerman numismatico (1920-1973)

The review / research of the papers kept in the archive of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum provided decisive elements to better understand the figure of Augustus Spijkerman, a numismatist reknown in this field of studies. He was an expert on Roman Provincial coins of Palestine and the Decapolis, shrewd in identifying unpublished specimens and able to establish the conservation of the numismatic holdings of both the Museum and its coin collection in such a way that decades after his direction, they still retain its validity.

The file archive is now divided into 10 sections with some unpublished manuscripts preserved as notes, numismatic writings, lecture notes, letters exchanged with some of the leading scholars of the currency of the Syro-Palestine. We are thus able to explain the rise of his interesting for this subject; the research on the provincial coinage of the Roman Decapolis and Provincia Arabia, the attention not only for the rare coins (from the antiquities market) but also for the discoveries from the excavations. Finally, his contribution to the classification of coins discovered at Khirbet Qumran and Ain-Feshkha during excavations conducted by Roland de Vaux in the fifties of the 20th century are of fundamental (and neglected till now) importance.