Toward the Present: Elizabeth II

Since 1952 Queen Elizabeth II is reigning Great Britain. In 2012 she celebrates her Diamond Jubilee looking back on a period that has changed her country profoundly.
By examining 12 coins we have strolled through Great Britain’s history – this is the last part…

The courtesan Laïs in Corinth

Sex sells. That is common knowledge to the yellow press and tour guides alike, as early as ancient times. Already the Corinthians cashed in on that and promoted a tourist attraction of a particular kind: the tomb of the famous courtesan Laïs…

At the Height of the Thirty Years’ War

Why issued Emperor Ferdinand III a gold medallion on his son’s coronation to King of Hungary and Bohemia only ten years later? This numismatic question leads us in the middle of the bloody Thirty Years’ War and to Wallenstein.

The lustre of all the gold treasures of the world does not make me happy

Although Michael I Apafi had the largest modern gold coins produced he nevertheless remained sceptical towards gold…

The magnifier, a coin collector’s most important tool

How to recognize an experienced coin collector? Simple, he always has his magnifier on the ready! What else to recognize an experienced coin collector? Simpler still, he does not own one single magnifier, but several, for each situation the appropriate one…

Erasmus of Rotterdam in Basel – part 2: The inheritance of Bonifacius Amerbach

You can still have a look at Erasmus of Rotterdam’s collection until this day, because the collector Bonifacius Amerbach kept it and gave it to the city. In this episode, among other things, you will see the chest, Amerbach kept the estate in.