Archive: People and Markets

Price Decline for Monaco Euro Coins – Is the Hype Over?

For many years, Euro coins from Monaco were regarded as true treasures among collectors. The exclusive mintings from the small principality were highly sought after, with prices seemingly heading in only one direction: steeply upwards. But now that trend appears to have come to an end—why?

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The Brasher Doubloon, graded by NGC. Photo: CCG.

The Certified Collectibles Group: More than Coins and Comic Books

In 2021, the Certified Collectibles Group surprised the numismatic community by announcing that the Blackstone investment firm would become a majority shareholder. This raised the question of what this might mean for the coin market. Ursula Kampmann was in Sarasota to visit the new Certified Collectibles Group.

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Lars Emil Bruun (1852–1923): From the Local Inn to an International Enterprise

The auction of the exceptional Bruun collection, 100 years after the collector’s death, has attracted a great deal of attention. But who was Bruun as a person? What inspired him? On behalf of Stack’s, Ursula Kampmann went in search of Bruun’s personality and compiled a short biography.

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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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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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