by Björn Schöpe
July 5, 2012 – On June 29, 2012 numismatist and CoinsWeekly publisher Ursula Kampmann has received the prestigious Otto-Paul-Wenger Award. At irregular intervals the Association of Swiss Professional Numismatists bestow that prize on those who are particularly engaged in propagating numismatics. As laudator Albert M. Beck, former editor of the German numismatic journal ‘MünzenRevue’, and founder and Honorary President of the WorldMoneyFair, stressed, the committee decided unanimously: ‘We all agree that Ursula Kampmann is a worthy awardee.’
Ursula Kampmann receiving the Otto-Paul-Wenger Award, on the left Marcel Häberling, on the right laudator Albert M. Beck.
Albert Beck enqueued Ursula Kampmann among the ‘architects who know how to build an important bridge between classical numismatics and modern coin collectors.’ He compared the awardee with a beekeeper distributing dripping honeycombs on many territories. Indeed not only coin collectors might know Ursula Kampmann but also many people dealing with coins in one way or another.
Because Ursula Kampmann, as the laudatio lists, has imparted her knowledge by articles since she had taken her doctoral degree in Ancient history and Greek numismatics in 1996. Especially as editor in chief of ‘MünzenRevue’ she has written more than 800 contributions for this journal but also for other specialized media. She has also established a certain reputation by her audio contributions and catalogue texts for museums, particularly on behalf of the MoneyMuseum Zurich.
But besides this she is active on areas often thought as incompatible with that kind of journalistic work: thus Ursula Kampmann acts at the interface between collectors and industry applying her competence to the world of the coin producing industry being editor of the ‘MintWorld’; furthermore she was secretary of the International Bureau of the Suppression of Counterfeit Coins of the International Association of Professional Numismatists and spokeswoman of the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art.
People often forget that Ursula Kampmann has much experience in the coin dealing business, too. She started her professional career writing catalogues for the Gießener Münzhandlung. Then for nine years she has worked for Münzen und Medaillen AG in Basel.
In addition she still carries on with her academic interests as the many participations at congresses attest, lately in Jerusalem. But another current project, the annotated publication of the correspondence between the coin collectors Hans von Schellenberg and Johann Jakob Rüeger showing impressively how coin collecting came to life around 1600, testifies her unabated academic curiosity.
This list could be extended further, but of course it is not only the quantity but above all the variegated interests and high quality of her contributions that led to Ursula Kampmann receiving the Otto-Paul-Wenger Award. Hence the laudator praised her ‘journalistic activity … being the best in its field today’ and the ‘special class’ of her ‘journalistic skills’. He rightly emphasized how much this author and journalist differs pleasantly from many scholars and politicians.
Naturally the readers of this journal do not need further persuasion as for all these qualities since it is she who has been editor in chief of CoinsWeekly since nearly three years. Yet before that task Ursula Kampmann had received the Vreneli Award of the ‘MünzenRevue’ and the GIG’s honorary award. The following links permit you to follow some of her current activities.
From time to time Ursula Kampmann is engaged in catalogues and the exhibition of the MoneyMuseum.
Here you may download many booklets, audiobooks and DVDs made by Ursula Kampmann for the MoneyMuseum. Just enter ‘Kampmann’ in the search engine field.
A new project on behalf of the coin producing industry in which Ursula Kampmann is involved as a protagonist is the journal MintWorld.
IADAA is an association of dealers in ancient art.
Various books by Ursula Kampmann you may find on the website of the publisher Gietl Verlag.
You can learn more about the Otto-Paul-Wenger Award here.
And there you can find the website of the Association of Swiss Professional Numismatists.