Archive: People and Markets

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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Our Event Sites for the Coin Fairs in Basel and Munich

On the last weekend in February and the first weekend in March, two coin fairs took place that we didn’t want to miss: First the Basel Coin Fair, then the NUMISMATA in Munich. You can find our impressions of the fairs on two event sites.

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Coins of the Islamic Lands From the Nasser D. Khalili Collection

The Khalili Collection of Islamic Art is one of the most comprehensive of its kind, and its Islamic coinage is among the finest in private hands. A catalog featuring highlights from the early period of Islamic Coinage has now been published, including many rare and unpublished specimens.

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A New Chapter: The Foundation of a New Auction House for Numismatic Literature

A new auction house enriches the numismatic landscape: the numismatic antiquarian bookshop Numismatisches Antiquariat Lang is an auction house specializing in numismatic literature.

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Archive: Coins, Medals and more

Mit dieser Münze stimmt etwas nicht! Bild: NGC. Gemälde im Hintergrund: Eduard Gaertner, Unter den Linden, 1852

Counterfeit Detection: Altered Prussia 20 Mark

An NGC expert gives us insight into his everyday life. He shows how the year on a coin from the German Empire was altered by a coin doctor.
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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