Archive: People and Markets

The Cape Mint: The Oldest Private Mint in South Africa

Did you think the South African Mint was the only mint in South Africa? That’s not true. In the heart of Cape Town, a small private mint fulfills all customer needs. I was privileged to visit the Cape Mint and met people there who take great pride in their work.

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Ein Teil des Goldschatzes von Manching. Unten im Bild der sogenannte Goldgusskuchen im Gewicht von 217 Gramm. Foto: UK.

Celtic Coin Hoard Melted Down into Lumps

Six months ago, a Celtic gold treasure was stolen in a burglary at the kelten römer museum Manching, Germany. Now the police have announced success in apprehending four suspected criminals.

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Lady Liberty meets Britannia – a special moment for coin collectors and bullion investors. Photo: Royal Mint / US Mint

Two Powerful Women – a Premiere in Gold and Silver

The British Royal Mint and the United States Mint collaborated to create a joint issue combining the well-known coin motifs of Lady Liberty and Britannia. They went all the way and had the chief engravers of both mints group up for a one-of-a-kind partnership.

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CIT’s Underwater Fantasy – Mermaids

The more we learn about the underwater world, its colorful, bizarrely shaped creatures and the sunken testaments to mankind, the more it captures our imagination and inspires our dreams. CIT translated this feeling into a numismatic shape. From a technical point of view, the application of enamel reproducing underwater visuals is highly remarkable.

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Archive: Coins, Medals and more

The Madrid Mint Museum is a service of the FNMT, the Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre. Photo: Museo Casa de la Moneda.

The Casa de la Moneda Museum in Madrid

Are you interested in coins of Spain and the Hispanic world? Then we have an important address for you: the Museum of the Casa de la Moneda in Madrid, which is located on the premises of the Spanish mint.
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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