Recte et constanter – uprightly and firmly, this is the motto under which empress Wilhelmine Amalia had taken up the reign. And uprightly and firmly did she act after her husband’s death as well. That is what is presented on an impressive medal offered at Künker.
Frederick August I, August the Strong, as he loved to call himself, was highly gifted and ambitious. “Little” Saxony was not enough for him, he wanted to join the game of international politics. A splendid opportunity occurred in 1696 when the Polish King had died…
In 1701, the Treaty of Hamburg ended the dispute over Mecklenburg-Güstrow between Friedrich Wilhelm I and Adolf Friedrich II. And another dispute culminated in the medals minted to mark the treaty, namely the one between the mint-master and the warden of the Schwerin mint. We are telling you the story.
Around 1600, coin collecting was “the” leisure activity of the intellectual elite. The emperor himself was an avid collector. He was imitated by many noblemen among them Philip II of Pomerania, who put together a great art collection in cooperation with Philipp Hainhofer.
In early Modern times the Hesse noble house of Solms faced like many other nobles financial problems. The imperial service and own coin issues were their way of solving that issue. Even though some members of the family had not been granted the minting privilege at all …
Napoleon was a master in the art of humiliation. Please find here a characteristic example of his mastership: The French Victoria is taming the Saxon Steed on a medal made from Saxon silver.
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.
An extremely rare double ducat made of Eder-gold will be sold at Kunker’s on October 30, 2012. It reminds us of how poor of natural resources this region once had been. Hence, Charles created a resource of his own: his army.
In its Berlin Auction 286, the auction house Künker auctions off the Ottar Ertzeid Collection with coins from the Swedish Territories. The offer includes a series of Purim talers. In this article, we address the question why the Protestants of Erfurt took a Jewish festival, of all events, to date their coins.
On January 31, 2013, a Pomerania collection will be coming up for auction at Künkers’. Here, we present two coins from the collection that are as different as the men who had them minted.
