Archive: People and Markets

Vatican Plans a Comeback: New Online Shop Launches in July

This move has nothing to do with the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV but has been in preparation for months: Starting in July 2025, the Vatican will resume sales of its philatelic and numismatic products.

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At the MDC conference in Ottawa the designated Chair of the Mint Directors Association announced the formation of the Mint Directors Association Ltd – a not for profit Incorporated Association currently comprising 19 Member Mints from around the world. Image: MDC.

Mark Cartwright is the New MDA Executive Director

The Chair of the Mint Directors Association has announced the appointment of Mark Cartwright as the Executive Director of MDA Ltd.

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Moderne Gedenkmünzen können als Sammelgebiet viel Freunde bereiten. Aber eine nachhaltige Wertanlage sind sie nicht.

The Difference Between Stamps and Coins: Not as Trivial as You’d Think!

There are times when uninformed people buy anything as long as the object in question might retain its value. Disillusionment strikes when the market situation changes. The realisation that there isn’t a market for every collectible ruined many a collecting field in the past. Ursula Kampmann urges caution.

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A comic figure on a 2-euro coin? Slovenia honours caricaturist Miki Muster. Photo: Banka Slovenije

2-Euro Ticker: New 2-Euro Coins in June 2024

Much has happened in the 2-euro coin world in the past four weeks: new motifs for 2024 were announced and four coins were issued – however, there were some problems.

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Archive: Coins, Medals and more

A map of the Duchy of Jülich-Berg by Willem and Joan Blaeu, 1645 and the reverse of the newly discovered denomination of a 6 Albus light of 1640.

A Discovery From Jülich-Berg

New coin varieties are not so uncommon, but a new denomination really is. Joachim Stollhoff has found a 6 Albus light of the Duchy of Jülich-Berg minted in 1640. The coin will be offered in the forthcoming auction of Münzen & Medaillen GmbH.
Karl Ludwig von Bruck, the mastermind behind the Vienna Coinage Treaty. We chose not to depict Emperor Franz Josef I at this point, who is shown on the coins, but the liberal politician Karl Ludwig von Bruck. Born into the family of a bookbinder in Elberfeld (now Wuppertal, Germany), he worked his way up from a merchant’s position to become Austria’s finance minister. He could almost be described as a beacon of hope for Austrian economic policy. It was tragic – and not just for him personally – that Franz Josef “ungraciously” dismissed him in April 1860 on false suspicions. The then 61-year-old took his own life. This deprived Austria of an imaginative politician who might have prevented its economic marginalization by Prussia.

A War Fought with Unusual Weapons: How Prussia Used Finance and Politics to Force the Habsburg Hereditary Lands Out of the German Confederation

On 26 March 2024, the Künker auction house will offer the Tursky Collection with coins of Emperor Franz Joseph I. We use specimens from this collection to tell the story of how Prussia used its economic sway to become the sole hegemonic power in Germany.
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