Colin M. Kraay

Colin M. Kraay (full name Colin Mackennal Kraay, born March 23, 1918 in London-Hampstead , † January 27, 1982 in Oxford ) was a British numismatist .

After attending Lancing College, Kraay studied classical studies at Magdalen College in Oxford from 1937 . After his first degree in 1939 he worked under Alan Wace on the excavations in Mycenae . His training was interrupted by the Second World War and he served in North Africa and Italy. 1946-47 he was able to continue his studies in Oxford. In 1953 he received his doctorate in Oxford with the thesis The aes coinage of Rome and its subsidiary mint in the West, AD 68-81 . From 1948 he worked at the coin cabinet of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the Heberden Coin Room , responsible for the Greek coins, from 1975 to 1982 he was its keeper .

Kraay initially dealt with Roman coins, but then, due to his work at the Oxford Coin Cabinet, turned more to Greek coinage. In 1976 he published an overview work on archaic and classical coinage in Greece and in 1974 together with Margaret Thompson and Otto Mørkholm he published the standard work on Greek coin hoards.

Kraay was awarded the Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society in 1978 and the Archer M. Huntington Medal in 1980 for his scientific work, and in 1978 he was elected a member of the British Academy .

Fonts (selection)

• The Aes coinage of Galba (= Numismatic Notes and Monographs. 133, ISSN  0078-2718 ). The American Numismatic Society, New York NY 1956, JSTOR 43607254 .
• The coin finds from Vindonissa (to Trajan) (= publications of the Society for Vindonissa. 5, ZDB -ID 1019893-3 ). Birkhäuser, Basel 1962.
• Greek coins. Thames and Hudson, London 1966.
• Coins of ancient Athens (= Minerva Numismatic Handbooks. 2, ZDB -ID 416041-1 ). Corbitt & Hunter, Newcastle upon Tyne 1968.
• Greek coins and history. Some current problems. Methuen, London 1969.
• as editor with Margaret Thompson , Otto Mørkholm : An Inventory of Greek Coin Hoards. The American Numismatic Society, New York NY 1973.
• Archaic and classical Greek coins. Methuen, London 1976, ISBN 0-416-12310-4 .
• The archaic coinage of Himera (= Centro Internazionale di Studi Numismatici. Bibliotheca. 1). Centro internazionale di studi numismatici, Naples 1983 (published: 1984).

literature

• Carol HV Sutherland: Colin Mackennal Kraay, 1918–1982. In: Proceedings of the British Academy. Vol. 68, 1982, pp. 591-605, ( online ).
• Georges Le Rider Kenneth Jenkins, Nancy Wagoner, Ulla Westermark (eds.): Kraay-Mørkholm essays. Numismatic studies in memory of CM Kraay and O. Mørkholm (= Publications d'Histoire de l'Art et d'Archéologie de l'Université Catholique de Louvain. 59 = Publications d'Histoire de l'Art et d'Archéologie de l ' Université Catholique de Louvain, Numismatica Lovaniensia. 10, ZDB -ID 2380311-3 ). Institut Supérieur d'Archéologie et d'Histoire de l'Art - Séminaire de Numismatique Marcel Hoc, Louvain-La-Neuve 1989, (pp. XI – XIII list of publications).
• David Gill: Kraay, Colin Mackennal. In: Robert B. Todd (Ed.): The Dictionary of British Classicists. Volume 2: G - N. Thoemmes Continuum, Bristol 2004, ISBN 1-85506-997-0 , pp. 552-553.