Inelastic neutron scattering (LNS) was used to study the magnetic excitations of Sm3+ ions in the archtypical hardmagnetic material SmCo5. Two inelastic magnetic lines were observed that can be interpreted as: (i) a transition within the ground state J-multiplet degrees H-5/2 and (ii) a transition from the ground state to the first excited J-multiplet degrees H-7/12. From these two transitions we have derived the lending crystal held parameter A(30) and the exchange field B-ex. Our results are compared with several earlier published results. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.