Archive: People and Markets

The British Museum suffered what was probably the largest theft in its history and a scandal that shook the institution to its core. Photo: hurk / Pixabay.

Red Alert at the British Museum

Thousands of objects have disappeared from the British Museum – allegedly stolen by a senior curator. The matter was uncovered by an antiquities dealer, whose warnings fell on deaf ears. The museum’s director has stepped down, and this seems to be merely the tip of the iceberg.

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Tim Wright, British Celtic Coins: Art or Imitation? An Introduction to the coins of pre-Roman Britain. Spink, September 2023. 144p.148 x 210 mm. ISBN 9781912667987. Price: £30.

British Celtic Coins: Art or Imitation?

The peoples of pre-Roman Britain remain an enigma, and the same is true for their coins. Tim Wright wrote a new book on British Celtic Coins which will soon be published by Spink Books. Read his introduction on the topic here.

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Washington Bond front ©Museum of American Finance.

Museum of American Finance to Display Collection Highlights at IMEX

The Museum of American Finance will display some of their most important documents at the International Money Exposition (IMEX) in Nashville. See some of the collection highlights here.

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Birthday Celebration: Employees of the Perth Mint toast to the 125th anniversary. Photo: The Perth Mint.

The Perth Mint Celebrates with Cake for 125th Birthday – and a Special Sovereign Coin

On June 20th, The Perth Mint celebrated the significant milestone of 125 years of operation as a gold refiner and producer of high-quality precious metal coins.

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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.
Wurde dieser Aureus aus geplündertem rhodischem Gold geprägt? Fotos: Hintergrund: Ymakris, CC-BY 4.0. Münze: Auktion Künker 416 (29./30. Oktober), Nr. 1809.

Gold from Rhodes for the Battle for Rome

On 30 October 2024, Künker will be auctioning an aureus minted by Caesar’s assassins in 42 BC. The extremely rare piece is estimated at 100,000 euros. We tell the story of a coin that takes us back to the heart of the Roman civil war.
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