An Interview with Lucy Moore: A Career in Medieval Coins, Community, and Museum Curation

Leeds Alum on early medieval coinage, interdisciplinary study, and making material culture accessible to all.

Lucy Moore, now Associate Curator of Numismatic and Object Collections at the Leeds University Libraries, began her journey here as a postgraduate student with the IMS, studying MA Medieval Studies. Moore reflects on how a module in early medieval coinage shaped her current interests, and how those early experiences led to a career in museums, research, and community engagement. 

©The Guardian, photographer Chris Thomond.

1. What made you choose the Medieval Studies MA, and how did your studies at Leeds help develop your interests in coins and museum work? 

When I looked for a MA course, I looked for interdisciplinarity – I quickly realised that Leeds ran a fantastic course, there were lots of options to study and ways to get involved in the city. 

I knew I'd have to work whilst I studied, and I knew I'd have to do the course part-time (I'd saved up as a teenager by working in a chip shop and on a farm in the holidays). In the 2000s there were a lot of call centres in Leeds, and working at one was how I paid my fees and supported myself. Learning shouldn't be reserved for the rich!  

The highlight for me was a module on Early Medieval Coinage, as this was the only of its type in the UK, and it really enabled me to not just learn, but to have an explicit qualification in a type of material culture I was passionate about –  and I still draw on this knowledge today.  

2. How would you describe the IMS community when you were a student there? Any memories that really stand out? 

I loved how international the Leeds community was – I'd never been around so many people from so many different places. My most outstanding memory was from the Maps and Aerial Photography module where Richard Morris took us all out in an aeroplane, to literally read the landscape as we flew over it.  Absolutely incredible.  

Socially, I made loads of really close friends, laughed a huge amount, and celebrated everyone's achievements – spiced (of course) with some low-key heartbreak to make the joy sweeter. 

3. After finishing your MA, what was your path back into heritage and museum work like? 

To be honest, I didn't really know what to do after I graduated from the MA – I wanted to chill out a bit! I got a job as a care assistant for someone living with dementia, did child-minding and also got a job selling memberships at the weekend for the National Trust.  

I had written a dissertation based on Early Medieval Coinage, which then led to me getting an internship at Leeds Museums & Galleries to work on their collection, after about a year. Off the back of that, I got a second internship with them, then one for six months at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. All the while I was still with the National Trust and doing my care jobs too.  

By this point I thought I probably wanted to work in museums, but it seemed very out of reach – after covering maternity leave at Leeds Museums, I was offered a newly created role of Projects Curator, working on large-scale, long-term schemes for the service. The first of which was to commemorate the centenary of the First World War. 

4. How does your volunteer work connect with your role as a researcher and curator? 

I volunteer in a few ways. Professionally, I'm a trustee of the Royal Numismatic Society, Carers Leeds, and Leeds Civic Trust, where I chair the Heritage and Culture Panel supporting the Blue Plaques scheme. I'm also a Wikipedia editor – I think it’s made me better at listening and more compassionate. I help out with Leeds parkrun when I can and just try to be a good community member. The thread through all of these is making things I find interesting or important as available as possible to people. 

Whether it’s carers’ rights, the enchantment of medieval coins, or the women from global majority countries whose biographies I add to Wikipedia, it's really important to share things we're passionate about, and while doing so, try to lift each other up. One reason I love working with coins so much is that there’s a coin for every theme, story, or question that you can imagine. I feel my job is to find the "hook" that draws people into collections. They’re objects with infinite possibilities. 

This varies for everybody – which is what keeps the job continually interesting! Once you’ve found that hook, and fundamentally created trust, most people find most things interesting.