Archive: People and Markets

“Rich Man, Poor Man: Art, Class, and Commerce in a Late Medieval Town”. Photo by Bruce Schwarz Courtesy of The Met.

Rich and Poor in Early Tudor England

The Met Cloisters takes you into a merchant’s house in 16th-century England. Why did a rich man exhibit images of the poor? Intriguing objects tell us about tastes and self-expression. And you can expect coins to be there too!

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New RNS Research Fund for Asian Numismatics

The Royal Numismatic Society announced the establishment of a new fund which aims to enable curators and students based in Asia to visit the UK to study Asian coin and money collections.

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New Zealand. £100, no date (1928-1929), Auckland. From the Joshua Lee collection and formally owned by Amon Carter.

A Short Numismatic History of New Zealand

Heritage offers a banknote that is considered a highlight of the monetary history of New Zealand. Reason enough for coin dealer Joshua Lee to present some of New Zealand’s most spectacular coins and banknotes.

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The coin shows two emperor penguins standing on the ice showcased in an extraordinary inverted relief.

Pobjoy Mints the World’s First Inverted 50 Pence Coin

Pobjoy Mint celebrates World Penguin Day with the world’s first inverted 50 pence coin. It features two emperor penguins.

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Archive: Coins, Medals and more

A postcard of the 1906 Olympic Games. In front: Gilded silver medal for a winner of the 1906 Olympic Games. From Künker auction 408 (18-19 May 2024), No. 122.

The Olympic Games That Are No Longer Recognized

In 1906, the IOC and the country of Greece invited athletes from all over the world to the Olympic Games in Athens. The Games had a lasting impact on the ceremonies surrounding the sporting showdown, even though the IOC no longer recognizes these Olympics today. A winner’s medal from the Games will be auctioned by Künker on 18 June 2024.
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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