Making cents of Ukraine

Several new Smithsonian numismatic acquisitions address the country’s “complex origins and the formation of its national identity.”

Despite its diminutive size, the gallery in which the Smithsonian displays selections from the 1.6 million object-strong National Numismatic Collection is among my favorites. One enters through a massive vault door—a moodsetter and formal quality that follows the content, as in art museums with suggestions of Gothic architecture in their medieval sectio…