Archive: People and Markets

The Royal Library of Belgium (KBR). Image: EmDee via Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Putting Survival Ratios of Ancient Coinages Into Perspective – Call for Papers

The 7th International Numismatic Conference of the Coin Cabinet of the Royal Library of Belgium takes place on 5 October 2024 and will focus on survival ratios of ancient coinages. Proposals for submissions are expected by 1 December 2023.

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New Zealand. £100, no date (1928-1929), Auckland. From the Joshua Lee collection and formally owned by Amon Carter.

A Short Numismatic History of New Zealand

Heritage offers a banknote that is considered a highlight of the monetary history of New Zealand. Reason enough for coin dealer Joshua Lee to present some of New Zealand’s most spectacular coins and banknotes.

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How the Romans Made Counterfeits

Counterfeits have been around in ancient Roman times, too – usually, they were cast from a copper-tin alloy. Researchers at the University of Tübingen examined the counterfeiting process and reconstructed it experimentally. A video documents their experiment.

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Directory of Circulating Coins – 4th Edition is Now Available

The fourth edition of the Directory of Circulating Coins has been published. Five years after the last edition, the useful reference book for current circulation coins is now up to date again.

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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.

The French Marianne I: Marianne as a Representative of the French People – Part 2

Marianne represents France as a female national allegory. Gabriele Sturm explores how she is depicted on French coins. Part 2 deals with the period of the 4th and 5th Republics, taking us to the present.
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