The original meaning of numismatics is simply "coin knowledge". The word comes from the Greek nomisma , Latin nummus , current coin. The noted numismatist Robert Goebl defined the speciality in this way: "Numismatics is the science of historic forms of money in all their practical, chronological and geographical appearances and connections.

It is a particularly material-intensive science of historical basics and sources and, thanks to its own methods and widely circulated technical literature, is just as independent as the scholarly disciplines closely related to it."*

What does that mean?

First: Numismatics or coin-knowledge is concerned with the nature of money in former times.
Second: Numismatics is concerned with the nature of money in every country on earth.
Third: Numismatics is concerned with the materials from which coins are made, principally gold, silver, copper and their additives and alloys.
Fourth: Numismatics is an independent science, using its own methods.
Fifth: Numismatics serves as a source science for related disciplines such as archaeology and art history.

Today numismatics comprises not only the study of coins and their history but also all forms of money from times past.

Before the invention of coinage in the 7th century BC, metal and other materials and objects had been used as money for thousands of years.

This means that there have undoubtedly been forms of natural money systems without the use of coins. Sometimes the two methods have existed side by side, natural money and minted money. The expression "money economy" therefore tells us nothing about the kind of money in use.

Modern students of numismatics at universities are concerned with the knowledge and history of coins and the history of money. The first coin-collectors established their cabinets out of interest in curiosities and the unusual.

*R. Göbl, Numismatik. Grundriss und wissenschaftliches System, Battenberg   Verlag München 1987, S. 14.