Entries by Ursula Kampmann

20 Years of Portable Antiquities Scheme

When it comes to describing a successful collaboration of archaeologists, numismatists, detectorists, coin collectors, and coin dealers, the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme is sure to be mentioned. We will tell you exactly what it is, on what legal grounds it is based, and the successes this program has achieved.

Meyer Amschel Rothschild, court factor and coin dealer

Meyer Amschel Rothschild worked his way out of the Frankfurt Jewish ghetto and all the way up to court factor in the 18th century. He specialised in coin- and antiquities dealing before becoming the founder of a famous dynasty of bankers.

The Irish harp

Every coin of Ireland, from 1 cent to 2 euros, features a harp. We ask why the harp plays such an important role in Irish identification.

Poets and their income: Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen

Beyond price – no, great art has never been beyond price. Quite the opposite actually – it had a clearly defined price. We will see just how high that price was, looking at the example of the German baroque poet Grimmelshausen. No one has left us with a more impressive account of the Thirty Years’ War.

Virginia City – Where monetary history was written…

Do you believe, too, that precious metal always retains its value? Well, then you better accompany us to Virginia City, where, in the Comstock Lode, so much silver was found that the silver standard was rendered obsolete.

Human faces, part 49: Hindenburg

Why was the human head the motif on coins for centuries, no, for millennia? And why did that change in the last 200 years? This episode looks at the late years of a famous military leader: Paul von Hindenburg.

Human Faces Part 9: The Battle of Macedonia against Rome

Why is it that for centuries – or rather thousands of years – the head has served as the motif for the side of a coin? And why has this changed in the last 200 years? This chapter of the series ‘Human Faces’ looks at the battle between Macedonia and Rome.

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians

On his visit to Ephesus, St. Paul was in imminent danger to be lynched. Why was it that the Ephesians felt so threatened by this herald of a new god? Were they more pious than other Greeks? They were, in a way, since they lived on their religion…

Shipping and superstition in antiquity

Sailors faced many dangers. But the superstitious people found a way to deal with that, and many deities and animals assisted the humans on the sea. A coin from Kyzikos tells of all this, a coin minted on the visit of Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

“Sing, Muse, of the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles…”

You believe that Paris abducted Helena? Which was why the Greek destroyed Troy? What if it was completely different? The later Trojans in Roman Imperial Times adhered to an entirely different version of the story – and so they celebrated their hero Hector on their coins.