Archive: People and Markets

INORCOAT: How to Make Minting More Sustainable

Are you annoyed by all the laws that make our lives more difficult but have no positive effect? Here’s an example of a law that actually makes sense: the planned ban on chromium (VI) electroplating is helping an innovative technology to make a breakthrough – and this development brings decisive advantages for the minting industry. Romain Waidelich of INORCOAT takes us behind the scenes.

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Detail des rekonstruierten römischen Verteidigungsrings um Alesia. Foto: KW.

A Visit to Alesia

Alesia is part of France’s national heritage; it is where Vercingetorix lost the decisive battle against Caesar. Time and again, French politicians have been inspired by this defeat. It fuelled their will to resist and motivated France to cooperate with victorious powers. This also affected the place itself, which Ursula Kampmann visited.

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Stack’s Bowers Galleries Opens New Gallery in Miami, Florida

On the heels of their recently opened Copenhagen office, Stack’s Bowers Galleries again increases their global presence: a new rare coin gallery and showroom will soon open in the heart of Brickell, Florida, Miami’s vibrant financial district.

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Osaka hosts Expo 2025 and Japan honors this event with the issuing of commemorative coins. Photo: Japan Mint. Background: Luca Florio / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Osaka 2025 World Expo Commemorated with Silver Coin

For Expo2025 Japan plans to issue five different coins. For one of these the Ministry of Finance has released the Design of a 1,000-Yen silver coin.

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Archive: Coins, Medals and more

Einer der Höhepunkte von Künker Auktion 395 ist eine spektakuläre Goldmedaille zu 110 Dukaten, die aus dem persönlichen Besitz von Fürst Ferdinand I. von Bulgarien stammt. Diese Medaille führt uns mitten hinein in eine Zeit, in der Bulgarien seine Wirtschaft modernisierte. Der Fürst packte dabei tatkräftig mit an. Und die Eisenbahn spielte dabei eine zentrale Rolle.

Bulgaria, Prince Ferdinand I and the Railroad

One of the highlights of Künker’s auction 395 is a spectacular gold medal with a weight of 110 ductats. It was the personal property of Prince Ferdinand I. of Bulgaria. This medal takes us back into a period when Bulgaria modernized its economy. And the railroad system played a major role in this.
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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