The Turks at the gates of Vienna!

Künker Auction 289 will offer coins and medals bringing to mind the quarrel about the legacy of Louis of Hungary and the first Siege of Vienna. They form part of Ottoman Collection featuring coins referring to the difficult relation between the Ottoman Empire and the Occident.

Leyden suffering – a siege during the Dutch War of Independence

Few wars have appealed to people’s emotions like the Dutch War of Independence. The roles seemed to be assigned all too clearly: on the one side there were the evil Catholic Spaniards, on the other the good Protestant Dutchmen. What we omit, however, is that this war was one the first in which propaganda was utilized in full awareness of its effects.

Human faces, part 48: Simón Bolívar, South America’s heroic freedom fighter

Why was the human head the motif on coins for centuries, no, for millennia? And why did that change in the last 200 years? In this episode: Why Bolivia is called Bolivia.

Coin Grading Made Easy

A lot of coin collectors are insecure when it comes to judging the condition of a coin. This article offers an introduction to this high art…

Gradings made in the USA

“Slabs“, that is how Americans call the small plastic boxes where coins are welded in, against a fee, after a procedure called grading. What is behind that? What advantages has that system? What problems?

Bridges as a sign of the Russian-French friendship

On 1 February 2018, Künker will auction off a testimony to the French-Russian alliance of 1892 in its Berlin auction. It is a gold medal dedicated to the inauguration of the Trinity Bridge in Saint Petersburg. This bridge was built as a symbol of this alliance and it has the Pont Alexandre III in Paris as its counterpart.

Catherine the Great, Moscow and the Kremlin

An impressive gold medal of Catherine the Great, which will be auctioned off at the Künker Auction 306 on 23 March 2018, shows the magnificent view of a Moscow Kremlin Palace that never existed. Here is the explanation why.

A Platinum Set from 1839 that Once Belonged to Great Prince Georgy Mikhailovich

Platinum coins rank among the great and most sought-after rarities of Russian numismatics. In their upcoming Berlin Auction, auction house Künker will offer a complete set of said rarities of exceptional condition, which once belonged to Georgy Mikhailovich, arguably the most famous collector of Russian coins.

Lake Baikal gold treasure

“Glorious Sea, the Sacred Baikal”, that is how the “Baikal hymn” written by Dimitrij Davydov starts. The lake is affectionately referred to as “Pearl of Siberia” since it is the world’s biggest freshwater reservoir. Lake Baikal is…

Peter the Great as his nation’s barber

During the cultural revolution Peter the Great brought Russia, not only institutions were put in the crosshairs but the country’s population as well. The beard had to go – literally speaking…