Archive: People and Markets

Der numindex am 25. Juni 2023.

The Numismatic Index on 25 June 2023

The numismatic index numindex transparently shows how the prices of selected coins change over time. In the style of a stock index, it was designed for collectors who consider their collection an investment. Find out about the current state of the index.

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United States Department of State, Washington. Image: AgnosticPreachersKid via Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Your Tax Dollars at Work

Is the State Department funding a crusade against private ownership of cultural goods in the U.S.? Peter Tompa explains how taxpayer money was used to justify cultural property Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) or “emergency import restrictions.”

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€150,000 each: The World’s Most Expensive Euro Coins – They Really Exist!

A six-figure sum for a single euro commemorative coin? Stories like this repeatedly grab headlines – most recently with rumours of a commemorative issue honouring Cristiano Ronaldo. But which price records for euro coins are actually realistic?

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Poetic Machines: Swissmint Honors Jean Tinguely

Steel, wheels, movement, order and chaos – Swiss artist Jean Tinguely was fascinated by the poetry of machines, which he captured in his kinetic machine sculptures. To mark what would have been his 100th birthday, Swissmint is honoring the exceptional artist with a silver coin.

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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.

Swissmint Patterns at Numismatica Genevensis SA

Numismatica Genevensis will offer Swissmint patterns at auction on 9 and 10 December 2024. Some of these patterns belong to a commemorative coin that will not even be released until 2025. All of these patterns are true rarities – ranging from unique to a maximum of four pieces in existence!
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