Archive: People and Markets

Goldbeater. Frontispiece from a register of creditors of a Bolognese lending society. Illuminated by Nicolò di Giacomo di Nascimbene, called Nicolò da Bologna Italy, Bologna, ca. 1394–95. The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.1056, fol. 1v detail. Photography by Janny Chiu.

Medieval Money, Merchants, and Morality

The new exhibition in the Morgan Library & Museum examines the economic revolution in medieval Europe and charts the expanding role and perception of money during that period. The medieval manuscripts shown in the exhibition are truly stunning!

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Celebrating Wolfgang Hahn’s 80th Birthday

There are numismatists who are an integral part of the numismatic world. One of them is Wolfgang Hahn, who shaped the fate of the Department of Numismatics and Monetary History in Vienna from 1990 to 2010. On 12 March 2025, he celebrated his 80th birthday.

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A Force of Nature Embodied in a Coin: CIT’s Lost City – Pompeii

CIT has captured the dramatic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79 with a three-dimensional representation. True to scale, and thanks to smartminting® in every detail, we see erupting Vesuvius, pouring its lava over the buildings of the city of Pompeii.

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Following Last Year’s Success: Münze Deutschland Again Sells Show Rarity at the World Money Fair

The World Money Fair is a haven for collectors hunting for limited-edition rarities. In 2024, a German coin card featuring the €2 coin “Mecklenburg-Vorpommern / Königsstuhl” caught everyone’s eye—and its market value skyrocketed to over €200. Münze Deutschland is now building on this success.

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Archive: Coins, Medals and more

Horace Vernet, Barrikadenkampf in der Rue Soufflot, Paris, 25. Juni 1848 (Juniaufstand).

French History in Coins – Part 2: From the Second Republic to the Second Empire

In the 19th century, people in France suffered from hunger and poverty. There were uprisings and a revolution. But the first president of the new republic was a nephew of Napoleon and completely took after the old emperor.
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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