Archive: People and Markets

Detail des rekonstruierten römischen Verteidigungsrings um Alesia. Foto: KW.

A Visit to Alesia

Alesia is part of France’s national heritage; it is where Vercingetorix lost the decisive battle against Caesar. Time and again, French politicians have been inspired by this defeat. It fuelled their will to resist and motivated France to cooperate with victorious powers. This also affected the place itself, which Ursula Kampmann visited.

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State Minister for Science and Art, Markus Blume (right), with the new Director of the Bavarian State Coin Collection, Dr. Martin Hirsch (left).

Martin Hirsch Becomes the New Director of the Bavarian State Coin Collection

Martin Hirsch has worked at the Bavarian State Coin Collection in Munich for years, and now he has been appointed Director. Dr. Hirsch has a lot planned for his new role.

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RPC Volumes V.2 and V.3 Now Available Online

The Roman Provincial Coinage project now published RPC volume V.2 and V.3 online. They cover all Roman provincial coinage issues from Pertinax to the death of Macrinus (AD 193-218) in all the Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. This includes 11,000 type descriptions and over 45,000 coins from 317 cities!

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Silk, Silver, and Spice: Money Museum’s New Exhibit Explores Treasures of Trade

Today, the Edward C. Rochette Money Museum in Colorado Springs opens its newest exhibition. “The Silk Road(s): A Numismatic Travelogue” will take observers on a journey of commerce, culture, and connections made possible through coinage.

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Archive: Coins, Medals and more

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.

What People Used to Pay With in South Africa

Coins are only the most recent of the many means of payment used in South Africa. And yet, there is much to be told about the country’s numismatic past. We tell the story of South African means of payment from glass beads to the rand.
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