Archive: People and Markets

Jere L. Bacharach (1938-2023)

Jere L. Bacharach, expert on Islamic numismatics, died in April 2023. The ANS remembers its long-time member of the Board of Trustees, and an invaluable scholar of the numismatic community and Middle Eastern studies.

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Numisma – Zoom Seminars of the Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies

Registration is now open to attend the upcoming zoom seminar series of the Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies (ACANS). Everyone interested in the study of ancient coins is welcome and encouraged to join the online lecture series. Find the upcoming lectures here.

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Top-Notch: Croatian lace and the coin issued in its honour. Image: © Branimir Kralj / Croatian Mint.

Croatia’s New “Lace-Making in Croatia” Gold Coins

Croatia has released three new gold commemorative coins to pay tribute to lace-making, a tradition recognised by UNESCO. The manufacture of lace in Pag, Hvar, and Lepoglava has been part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2009.

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CoinsWeekly Special Issue for the TICC Tokyo 2025

After overwhelming interest in the last years, we have once again published a printed CoinsWeekly Special Issue for TICC 2025, which takes place in Tokyo from April 26 to 28. If you can’t make it to Tokyo, you can download the PDF here.

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Archive: Coins, Medals and more

Contemporary allegory on the Great Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg.

The Great Elector, Taxes and the Rise of Prussia

On 1 February 2024, the Künker auction house will hold its 400th auction sale. Among the 770 lots are very rare issues from the reign of Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia. They bear witness to the achievements of the Great Elector, who brought prosperity to a realm devastated by the Thirty Years’ War.
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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