Tag Archive for: History

At the Height of the Thirty Years’ War

Why issued Emperor Ferdinand III a gold medallion on his son’s coronation to King of Hungary and Bohemia only ten years later? This numismatic question leads us in the middle of the bloody Thirty Years’ War and to Wallenstein.

Erasmus of Rotterdam in Basel – part 2: The inheritance of Bonifacius Amerbach

You can still have a look at Erasmus of Rotterdam’s collection until this day, because the collector Bonifacius Amerbach kept it and gave it to the city. In this episode, among other things, you will see the chest, Amerbach kept the estate in.

Magical Numismatics: The Silver Shilling

Numerous novels, travelogues and short stories from the 19th century inform us about the numismatic every-day life. A particularly nice example is one of the more than 160 fairy tales Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) has written.

Images from a minting workshop of the 16th century

How were coins produced in the 16th century? Only few illustrations provide information about that process. One of the most important is a pane featuring the coat of arms of the Schaffhausen mint master Werner Zentgraf…

Message in a bottle

In 1967 workers of the Austrian Mint found a message in a bottle bricked in a wall. Colleagues who worked in the same building around the turn of the century had left the message in order to inform posterity about their awkward situation.

The Powers of the Soho Mint

William McKivor presents a medal from his own collection telling the history of its origin: It was struck in the Soho Mint in 1803, and played a role in an argument conducted in three countries in three languages on two medals, between the English manufacturer Matthew Boulton and the French Engineer J. P. Droz.

The first Islamic gold coin in history

A devout Moslem, a confident Christ and the first written testimony for the Islamic creed – these are the ingredients of a really exciting story…

A mint for Australia

Gold plays a key role in Australia. It helped the former penal colony to become a serious country. Thus, a pattern for the first Australian sovereign, which will be auctioned off by Künker on January 31, 2019, is not only a numismatic highlight, but also a high-level testimony to Australian history.

Numismatic Episodes from Australia

Monday, September 27th, 2010, the Mint Directors Conference will start in Australian Canberra. There, executive staff members from mints all over the world will meet in order to discuss about pending problems. CoinsWeekly will introduce itself to the members of the congress with the following three little episodes from Australian numismatic history printed within the congress’s daily journal…

Harold Harefoot or the Vikings in England

Cnut the Great had formed an enormous kingdom uniting Denmark, Norvegia and England. But after his death his sons Harthacnut and “Harold Harefoot” clashed with each other. And England became their bone of contention.
By examining 12 coins we are going to stroll through Great Britain’s history – this is part 2…