Archive: People and Markets

Q. David Bowers, foreword by Jeff Garrett, A Guide Book of Morgan Silver Dollars, 7th edition. Whitman Publishing, Atlanta (GA) 2023. Paperback, 336 p., full color, 6 x 9 inches. ISBN: 0794849164. US$24.95.

Q. David Bowers’s New Guide Book of Morgan Silver Dollars

The Morgan Dollars are among the most famous and highly collectible US coins. Dennis Tucker discusses the new 7th edition of Q. David Bowers Guide Book and what makes these coins so fascinating.

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The IAPN Book Prize 2023

Every year, the International Association of Professional Numismatists rewards a numismatic work published the previous year with their IAPN Book Prize. The winner of 2023 comes from India.

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All the seven coins that were purchased by the National Museum of Denmark. Photo: National Museum of Denmark.

National Museum of Denmark Acquires Seven Coins of the Bruun Collection

The National Museum of Denmark used its right of first refusal to buy extremely rare coins from Lars Emil Bruun’s collection before they are to be sold at auction. Here you can see the seven extraordinary pieces!

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Eisleben, Germany: Church Treasure Recovered After Almost 400 Years

What a find: last year, a hoard of 864 coins was discovered in a sandstone figure in a church in Eisleben, Germany. The coins were hidden there during the Thirty Years’ War and provide a rare insight into the currency in circulation at that time. A coin expert from the region tells us more about it.

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Archive: Coins, Medals and more

Die Qual der Wahl: Welche Goldmünzen sind zu gut für die Schmelze? Foto: Wieschowski / „Iron melting furnace“ von „fotosuper“ von Getty Images via Canva Pro.

Gold at Record Highs: Melt Down or Preserve Historic Gold Coins?

Gold is now more expensive than ever. This trend has put many collectors and dealers in a moral dilemma: Which gold coins can be sold or melted down without hesitation, and where do the real treasures lie?
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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