Tag Archive for: Nations

What is left of the man who invented the taler

The city of Hall is always worth a visit, not only because of its interesting museum on minting technology in the mint tower. Near the parish church, too, a numismatic treasure can be found…

Gold from Goldkronach

For centuries the mines of Goldkronach were extremely profitable. But then their abundance ebbed away. The Bavarian Kings were not willing to accept that and planned huge investments. A coin will tell you, what happened then.

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.

Meyer Amschel Rothschild, court factor and coin dealer

Meyer Amschel Rothschild worked his way out of the Frankfurt Jewish ghetto and all the way up to court factor in the 18th century. He specialised in coin- and antiquities dealing before becoming the founder of a famous dynasty of bankers.

The Rue Mouffetard treasure

Every day, thousands of tourists stroll about the Rue Mouffetard, the “food alley” of Paris. Amongst aromatic cheese and huge sides of beef very few are aware that that one of the most spectacular coin treasures of the 18th century was found in house no. 51-53…

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 …

Sensation at 5 Centimes in Le Petit Journal

The 1896 share certificate of the newspaper Le Petit Journal shows a sou in the lower border. France counted about 40 million people around that time…

Pilgrim’s Ring and Coin of the Jewish War

This is the story of a ring, bought from an Arab in Jerusalem, the feasts of Shavout and Sukkot and a coin of the Jewish War…

The Anabaptists – an episode from the history of Münster

Anyone looking up the St. Lambert’s Church in Münster discovers above the church clock a kind of decoration that is more than peculiar. High above, for everyone to see, there are three iron cages suspended from the steeple. Their background story will be told today.

Human faces, part 49: Hindenburg

Why was the human head the motif on coins for centuries, no, for millennia? And why did that change in the last 200 years? This episode looks at the late years of a famous military leader: Paul von Hindenburg.