Archive: People and Markets

The MDC Awards 2023

After a five-year break, the Mint Directors Conference took place in Ottawa, Canada, from October 15 to 18. One of the most eagerly awaited events was the announcement of the winners of the prestigious MDC Awards. You can now find them here.

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In Marseille the dealers’ association IAPN hold their 71st General Assembly in June 2023. Photo: Tiia Monto via Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

IAPN General Assembly in Marseille 2023

At their 71st General Assembly in Marseille, the International Association of Professional Numismatists elected new members, increased the Executive Committee, and awarded the prestigious IAPN Book Prize.

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From a Collector’s Market to an Investor’s Market: Reasons, Consequences, Opportunities, Part 2

Today we continue Ursula Kampmann’s analysis of the change from collector to investor market with the second part. Find out how the market for American coins became a perfect investor’s market.

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Marie Lemay, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint, was the host of the first MDC held in five years. Image: MDC.

Review: Minting For the Future at MDC 2023

The 2023 Mint Directors Conference took place in Ottawa, Canada. It was the first MDC held in five years and welcomed over 250 delegates from mints and the wider industry across the globe.

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Archive: Coins, Medals and more

25 Francs in Gold: Swissmint’s New Gold Coin

Since 2022, Swissmint has been issuing 25-franc gold coins. The latest release is a tribute to the history of Swiss gold coinage, combining elements of the first 20-franc piece and the enigmatic 1955 issue, which never entered circulation. And Swissmint also has some interesting plans for the future, as Ursula Kampmann discovered.
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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