Gold medal.
Saving the life of the Tsar during the
failled assassination attempt by Soloviev.
yracuse, Dionysius I.
Decadrachm,
signed with EU - AINE.
Septimus Severus.
Aureus after 149.
The only known specimen.
City of Wrocław/Breslau.
25 Ducats 1669.
Of the highest rarity.
Victoria.
Pattern 5 Pounds 1839,
Una and the lion.
Of the highest rarity. NGC PF63.
Albrecht von Wallenstein.
Ducat 1627.
Very rare.
Michael Apafi.
10 Ducat Klippe 1683.
Of the highest rarity.
Diocese of Chur.
Johann Anton v.Federspiel.
1/6 Reichstaler 1758.
Probably the only known specimen.
5 Francs 1886.
Of the highest rarity.
Only five specimens struck
Quintuple gold Gulden 1501.
Off-metal strike in gold of the Guldiner.
Of the highest rarity.
George Kolbe Retires from Bookselling
George Frederick Kolbe, numismatic bookseller and author, has announced his retirement from the partnership of Kolbe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers. The firm will continue to operate as Kolbe & Fanning under the ownership of David and Maria Fanning and will remain in their Gahanna, Ohio offices.
George Frederick Kolbe.
Kolbe began his career as a numismatic bookseller in May 1967 with the publication of his first fixed price list, a three-page typewritten compilation sent from Redondo Beach, California, to no more than two dozen potential customers. Subsequent lists grew in sophistication both of content and format, and in 1976 Kolbe (by now in Mission Viejo) held his first auction, a mail-bid sale of 763 lots. Three subsequent mail-bid sales were followed by Kolbe’s first public auction, held in conjunction with the 1979 Convention of International Numismatics in Los Angeles.
To date, George Kolbe has been associated with some 168 auctions conducted under his name or (beginning in 2010) under the Kolbe & Fanning banner. Many of these sale catalogues function as references within the field of numismatic literature. A listing of notable libraries sold over the years would consist of too many names to include here, though the Harry W. Bass, John J. Ford, and Stack Family libraries require particular mention, as do the fifteen New York auctions conducted jointly with Douglas Saville of Spink. During his career, Kolbe also published The Numismatic Bookseller, which variably functioned as a house organ, fixed price list, and mail-bid sale, and founded the Numismatic Bibliomania Society with his friend Jack Collins. In 2012, Kolbe published a bibliography, The Reference Library of a Numismatic Bookseller, based on his personal working library.
David Fanning writes, “When Kolbe & Fanning was established in 2010, it was a great honor for me to join forces with the preeminent numismatic bookseller of our day. As our partnership is ending and our firm prepares to move forward on our own, it is our honor to do so with the Kolbe name firmly attached. We are enormously grateful to George for providing us with the opportunity to go into business with him, and we send our very best wishes with him into his well-earned retirement.”
Kolbe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers will be holding their next auction on February 17, 2024, when they will be offering highlights from the extraordinary BCD Library on ancient numismatics.
