Archive: People and Markets

Foreign Coin Production Ends at the Royal Mint – The End of an Era or Another Step Closer to a Cashless Economy?

The Royal Mint has announced that it will no longer produce coins for other countries, ending a business model that it has operated for 700 years. Michael Alexander puts this development into perspective.

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State Minister for Science and Art, Markus Blume (right), with the new Director of the Bavarian State Coin Collection, Dr. Martin Hirsch (left).

Martin Hirsch Becomes the New Director of the Bavarian State Coin Collection

Martin Hirsch has worked at the Bavarian State Coin Collection in Munich for years, and now he has been appointed Director. Dr. Hirsch has a lot planned for his new role.

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The Capitoline Museum is home of some of the most important cultural goods of Italy. Image: Suicasmo via Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Legal Head of Italian Culture Ministry: “Fiendishly Extensive” Proofs Bar Imports

A significant statement on the importation of numismatic goods was issued in June 2023 by the legal department of the Italian Ministry of Culture. Read an analysis by Valentina Tarquini for Cultural Property News here.

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One of the coins seized during the police’s Operation Fantail. (Courtesy of Durham Constabulary.) Next to it, a passage from the biography of Alfred the Great written by Asser. The coin presents the prominent 9th-century ruler in a whole new light.

How Two Fraudsters Almost Changed England’s History

Two English metal detectorists attempted to sell off some illegally excavated coins. In a police operation straight out of a movie, the pair were caught and have now been sentenced. The seized coins present England’s King Alfred the Great in a totally different light.

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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.

The Turks, the Bohemian Estates and Two Gnadenpfennigs by Ferdinand I

SINCONA’s spring auction will be held from 13 to 15 May 2024. Among other highlights, two extremely rare gold gnadenpfennigs by Ferdinand I are on offer. The multiple coins with a weight of 10 and 15 gold gulden are among the great treasures of Habsburg numismatics. We share their story.
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