Archive: People and Markets

Coins that are submitted for grading during the WMF in Berlin, for example, should be ready in time for the Numismata in Munich.

NGC Grading On-site in Munich in February

For the first time since 2019, NGC will be carrying out on-site coin grading at its office in Munich in February. Collectors and dealers have the opportunity to submit their treasures for grading at the World Money Fair in Berlin.

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Stockholm: Lawsuit against Royal Coin Cabinet thief

In April we had to report that at least 1,200 objects worth the equivalent of 2.6 million euros had disappeared from the Stockholm Royal Coin Cabinet. A perpetrator is now standing trial. A second one is the subject of ongoing investigations.

Bernt Ahlström circa 1980. Photo: Family Archive.

Bernt Ahlström (1936-2019)

You will hardly find a dealer in the numismatic world who is completely unfamiliar with the name Bernt Ahlstrom. On the occasion of the sale of his numismatic library at Gut-Lynt, Arne Kirsch recounts the eventful life of the coin dealer and bon vivant.

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Illustration: „highyou“ / Canva Pro.

Germany’s New Platform Tax Transparency Act: A Problem for eBay Coin Dealers?

Germany’s new Platform Tax Transparency Act has caused great concern among German coin collectors. Will they have to explain themselves to the tax authorities whenever they sell pieces of their collection? In most cases, the answer is no. Unless their hobby turns into a regular side-line.

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Archive: Coins, Medals and more

Background: Kremnica. Photo: Lukkon / CC BY-SA 4.0.

The First Years of Czechoslovak Coinage

SINCONA will auction off an impressive collection of Czechoslovak patterns. The offer includes a pattern for the Wenceslas Ducat of which only two specimens exist. Moreover, the sale features the very specimen of the Wenceslas Ducat that President Mazaryk gave to the family of the murdered Finance Minister Rašín.
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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