Richter, Jürg

Owner of the Zurich-based auction house SINCONA AG

Jürg Richter (* 1963) was born in Zurich and grew up in the canton of Zurich. He was still a child when he started collecting Swiss coins and helping out at a coin dealership.

After leaving secondary school, he studied economics for four semesters at the Handelsschule St. Gallen and the University of Zurich. But then he decided to pursue his passion, numismatics, and in 1985, he started training as a numismatist at the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (SKA), where he worked as a specialist in rare and modern gold and silver coins, Switzerland and banknotes, as well as a counterfeit expert for Swiss coins and banknotes, until the company closed in 1996.

From 1996 to 1998, he worked at the Frank Sternberg coin dealership in Zurich, which is also where he directed his first auctions.

From 1998 to 2011, Jürg Richter then worked in the Numismatic Department at UBS AG, from 1998 to 2000 as Deputy Head and from 2001 to 2008 as Head of the Basel location; from 2008 to 2011, Jürg Richter headed up the entire Gold and Numismatics Department and was responsible for the physical trade of precious metals at the Zurich, Basel and Geneva locations.

When UBS decided to part with its Numismatics Department in 2011, Jürg Richter took on some of his colleagues and, in May 2011, he founded SINCONA AG (Swiss International Coin Auction AG), where he is still Managing Director to this day.

As a proven expert in Swiss money, Jürg Richter has produced numerous publications, many of which have become established as standard works in their respective fields, including:

  • Swiss shooting talers and shooting medals: 3rd extended and supplemented edition. In Chinese and English only. (2018)
  • Die Proben und Materialvarianten der Schweizer Münzen vom Mittelalter bis zur Neuzeit (The patterns and material varieties of Swiss coins, from the Middle Ages to the modern era), 2 volumes, (2017)
  • HMZ Catalogue: Die Münzen der Schweiz von der Antike bis zur Neuzeit (The coins of Switzerland, from antiquity to the modern era). 2nd revised edition (2011)
  • Swiss shooting talers and shooting medals (2005)
  • Die Schützenjetons der Schweiz (Swiss shooting jetons) (2005)
  • Die Banknoten der Schweiz (Swiss banknotes) (2003)
  • Fehlprägungen und Fälschungen von Schweizer Münzen ab 1850 (Error coins and forgeries of Swiss coins from 1850 onwards) (1987)

In 2016, the Association of Swiss Professional Numismatists honoured Jürg Richter with the Otto Paul Wenger Award.

Jürg Richter has been a board member and Vice President of the Association of Swiss Professional Numismatists (VSBN) since 1988 and a board member and Vice President of the Numismatic Society of Zurich (NVZ) since 1985.

Alongside numismatics, Jürg Richter also has another big passion in life: he is a proven wine expert who conducts international wine tastings.

 

If you would like to contact Jürg Richter, you can send him an email.

You can also find him on LinkedIn.

Here’s the website for his auction house, SINCONA AG.

If you’d like to find out more about Jürg Richter’s personal life, you can read the laudatory speech that Ruedi Kunzmann delivered about him when he received the Otto Paul Wenger Award (in German).

Of course, we’ve written about Jürg Richter’s book on Swiss shooting talers and medals.

And about his work on the patterns and material varieties of Swiss coins.

You can read a bit about the HMZ catalogue here.

And if you’re interested in wine, take a look at Jürg Richter’s ‘Sauternes’ website with his tasting notes, or his online shop Wine Rarities.