Archive: People and Markets

King Charles III dedicates the first circulation coins of his reign to environmental protection. Photo: Royal Mint

A King in Your Wallet: Pound Coins Featuring Charles III Enter Circulation

Almost two years after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, her successor, King Charles III, is gradually arriving in the wallets of the British – and new faces will also be appearing in change in Denmark and Luxembourg.

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CIT Legends: Aztec Empire

CIT’s Legends series is a feast for the eyes for all those who love to immerse themselves in a coin design. The fourth release of the series is dedicated to the Aztecs, the legendary people who offered blood sacrifices to assure the rising of the sun each day.

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CIT presents: Alcatraz Island

With Alcatraz, CIT presents a coin that takes the depiction of islands to a completely new level. Be it from a bird’s eye view or from the side, the coin depicts the legendary penitentiary complex in great detail and illustrates why the island became a myth.

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Tradition Meets Craftsmanship: Coin Minting as a Highlight of the Garden Show

When the Garden Show in Freudenstadt and Baiersbronn opens its doors in May, visitors can look forward to a special experience: a historical minting station, where they can create their own commemorative medals by hand.

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Archive: Coins, Medals and more

Image detail from “The last viaduct before entering the Trieste railway station”, image: SLUB Dresden. Public Domain Mark 1.0. PPN 337170053. In front: Double vereinstaler 1857. From Auction Künker 308, No. 471.

A Commemorative Coin Celebrating the Completion of Austria’s Southern Railway

Commemorative coins were issued far less frequently in the 19th century than today. The fact that Emperor Franz Joseph dedicated a commemorative coin to the Austrian Southern Railway is therefore testimony to the outstanding importance of this line. In auction 408, Künker is offering two of only 1,644 specimens minted.
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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