Archive: People and Markets

The denarii of this hoard lay in the ground for 2,000 years without anyone noticing them. Photo: Franco Sammartino.

Coins from the Era of Marius and Sulla Discovered in Tuscany

In the Livorno region, a hoard of 175 Roman Republican denarii of remarkable quality was found in 2021. The existence of the treasure was kept secret until an exhibition displayed the pieces in 2023.

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More than three years after the spectacular burglary at Dresden’s Green Vault, the Dresden Regional Court handed down a verdict on 16 May 2023. The return of part of the loot has paid off for the defendants. But many questions are still open.

Verdicts in the Dresden Jewel Heist Case

More than three years after the spectacular burglary at Dresden’s Green Vault, the Dresden Regional Court handed down a verdict on 16 May 2023. The return of part of the loot has paid off for the defendants. But many questions are still open.

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The Sundman Lecture Symposium at the 2023 ANA’s World’s Fair of Money will focus on how coinage, paper currency, medals and tokens have been used to create, record and/or modify national identity. Photo: 12222786 via Pixabay.

Call for Paper: Explain How Money Helped Building National Identity

How have coinage or paper currency been used to create or modify national identity in history? That is the topic of the Sundman Lecture Symposium at the 2023 ANA’s World’s Fair of Money. Any ideas? Submit your summary!

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How the Romans Made Counterfeits

Counterfeits have been around in ancient Roman times, too – usually, they were cast from a copper-tin alloy. Researchers at the University of Tübingen examined the counterfeiting process and reconstructed it experimentally. A video documents their experiment.

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Archive: Coins, Medals and more

Anarevito Horseman gold stater, struck in east Kent, c.AD 10-20. Only the second known. Found near Dover. PAS no: KENT-06535F. To be sold by Chris Rudd of Norwich, 17 November 2024. Picture: Chris Rudd.

Was Anarevito a Slave Trader?

Until recently, the name Anarevito was completely unknown. It first appeared in 2010 on a coin struck shortly after the birth of Christ. Now the name has surfaced on another coin, which is for sale. Chris Rudd discusses this ruler, his coins, and his connection to the slave trade.
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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