Tag Archive for: Germany

Two Dukes in Pomerania

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.

Napoleon tames the Saxon Steed

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.

A relic from Germany’s post-war era: a hoard of cigarette boxes

Time and again the happiness has been described a collector experiences when at a coin fair he finds the one, the small and seemingly insignificant object …

Wolfgang II von Barby (1586-1615) – An Imperial Count in Financial Straits

On January 31, 2013, Künker will hold his fabulous Berlin sale in connection with the World Money Fair. Among the many rare pieces on offer is a unique thaler from Barby. This thaler testifies to the financial difficulties of the small imperial estate at the beginning of the modern era.

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.

Making the Case for the Gold Standard: The Coins of Josef Wild

By means of hyperinflation, the German government transferred the cost of World War I onto its citizens. Josef Wild, a simple goldsmith from Nuremberg, tried to do something about it. He died in prison as a counterfeiter of coins.

German oaks and national sentiments

It is rather unspectacular what can be seen on German 1, 2 and 5 Cent coins: a simple oak branch – boring, one might say. However, the oak symbol is very old and closely connected with Germany, its national identity and its democracy for nearly 300 years…

Munich, the German Mecca for Coin Collectors

No other city in Germany offers such an accumulation of well-known coin auction houses in a relatively confined space as Munich does. On and around the Maximiliansplatz such important companies are located as…

The Purim Festival of the Protestants

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.

Money of the German Colonies

In 1871, after the great victory over France and the unification of the German Confederation in the German Empire, ambitious German businessmen thought that everything was possible. They saw their English colleagues earning the earth in the colonies and wanted to do just the same…