Magical Numismatics: The Silver Shilling

Numerous novels, travelogues and short stories from the 19th century inform us about the numismatic every-day life. A particularly nice example is one of the more than 160 fairy tales Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) has written.

The most beautiful depiction of a ship in numisnautics

Danish King Christian V issued the largest gold medal ever struck to celebrate his victories at sea…

Message in a bottle

In 1967 workers of the Austrian Mint found a message in a bottle bricked in a wall. Colleagues who worked in the same building around the turn of the century had left the message in order to inform posterity about their awkward situation.

The Powers of the Soho Mint

William McKivor presents a medal from his own collection telling the history of its origin: It was struck in the Soho Mint in 1803, and played a role in an argument conducted in three countries in three languages on two medals, between the English manufacturer Matthew Boulton and the French Engineer J. P. Droz.

Recovering Precious Metal: from Grandma’s old silver knife to the new coin blank

Allgemeine is one of the biggest refineries for precious metal in Europe. It has opened its doors to CoinsWeekly. We were allowed to watch the process of transforming silver and gold scrap to pure precious metal blanks. Please join us on this fascinating tour.

Images from a minting workshop of the 16th century

How were coins produced in the 16th century? Only few illustrations provide information about that process. One of the most important is a pane featuring the coat of arms of the Schaffhausen mint master Werner Zentgraf…