Pieter Chijs

Background

He was the son of J. van der Chijs and Associate of Science

Education

At the age of nine became interested in coins when he studied the ones his parents donated to the poor of Delft each week.

Career

Bagelaar who encouraged him to start collecting. He began to collect coins from around the world. After following school in Delft, he became a student of letters at the University of Leiden in 1820.

In 1833 he started the coin magazine "Tijdschrift voor algemeene munten penningkunde".

In 1835 he was appointed director with the honorary title of "Professor Extraordinarius" of the coin cabinet Penningkabinet der Hoogeschool in Leiden. Chijs had already started work correcting the work of Cornelis van Alkemade who had published an incomplete list in 1700.

In 1862 he published his last work Notice sur le Cabinet Numismatique de l"Universite de Leyde, which was a catalogue of his cabinet.

Achievements

• He won a few prizes before devoting himself to his hobby. The Teylers Second Society announced a prize in 1841 for "a compilation of coins under former Dutch dukes, counts, lords and cities, from the earliest times up to 1576". This prize question could never be completed in the time allotted, but Chijs was granted a year"s extension in 1844 and when he published his De munten der voormalige hertogdommmen Braband en Limburg, he was awarded a prize medal on 4 December 1846.

Membership

He wrote an essay on the art of collecting old coins in 1829 and in 1831 he became a member of the Batavian Society for Experimental Philosophy.