Archive: People and Markets

Our Who’s Who Is Here!

Our entire Who’s Who for numismatists and collectors is now available on our new website. This is another important step on our path towards transitioning from our old to the new site. And there is more!

Pop-Up Expo at the Royal Library of Belgium: The Past in Metal

The Department of Coins & Medals at the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR) invites you on a journey through Belgium’s history via coins – from the ancient Eburones to emergency money from the Eighty Years’ War and objects used as currency in colonial Congo.

Royal Mint Discontinues Rose Gold Alloy for Sovereign Coins

The Royal Mint has unveiled the Sovereign collection for 2025, alongside a major announcement regarding the coin’s future composition.

New Museum Management in Monaco: A Year Full of Surprises for Euro Collectors?

At first glance, it is “only” a piece of news on a new museum director – but the change at the top of the “Musée des Timbres et des Monnaies de Monaco” could herald a new era in the coin issuance policy of the Principality, which could spark discussions among collectors.

Archive: Coins, Medals and more

Some of the protagonists of the 30 Years' War depicted on coins. Coin photos: Künker (see further illustrations of the article). Background: copper engraving of the second battle of Breitenfeld on October 23, 1642, detail.

The Protagonists of the Thirty Years’ War: A Slightly Different Preview of Künker’s Auction 410

On 23 September 2024 Künker will auction off a breathtaking collection including many multiple gold coins, multiple talers and rare medals relating to the Thirty Years’ War. We present the most beautiful pieces, and explain why the men depicted on these issues took part in 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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