Archive: People and Markets

Peter Ilisch (1947–2023). Photo: Verein der Münzfreunde für Westfalen und Nachbargebiete e. V., Axel Obdenbusch.

Peter Ilisch (1947–2023)

Peter Ilisch passed away on 29 May 2023. The former curator in Münster specialised in medieval and early modern Westphalia. As an obituary, we publish the speech of Stefan Kötz, who paid tribute to his predecessor in office at the funeral service.

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The Fascinating World of Insects and Minting Errors: The Misaligned Stag Beetle

A year ago, the paint on coins from the “Fascinating World of Insects” series began to flake off. Now, new anomalies have surfaced—ones that experts find only partially explainable.

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Beautiful Stockholm. Image: Brorsson – CC BY-SA 3.0.

ICOMON Annual Conference 2024 – Call for Papers

ICOMON is looking for presentations for their annual conference 2024, which will be held in Stockholm. One topic that will be particularly in focus is Cross-Organization Collaborations. Abstracts can be submitted until 31 January 2024.

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Employees of Monnaie de Paris Launch Petition to Protect Their Site

“Hands off Monnaie de Paris” – with this clear message, Rodolphe Krempp, Deputy Sales Director at Monnaie de Paris, reached out to his contacts on the business network LinkedIn over the weekend.

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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.
Napoleon III, painting by Alexandre Cabanel, around 1865. It was the favourite portrait of Empress Eugénie because it was the most accurate depiction of him.

French History in Coins – Part 3: A New Napoleon

Under Emperor Napoleon III, France experienced an economic upswing. The Paris cityscape was completely revamped, just as coin designs. The gold rush in the US thrust Europe’s silver money into a crisis. The answer came from France.
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