Articles

When the French people had chased away Citizen King Louis Philippe und founded the Second Republic, they were looking for new coin designs for their new republic. The most talented artists of the time submitted design proposals. Auction house Künker presents in its auction 337 on 25 June 2020 a series of these patterns.

From 22 to 26 June 2020, the Summer Auction Sales 337-338 take place in Osnabrück. In this article, we will introduce you to one of the pieces from the upcoming auctions: a guldengroschen of 1528, minted on behalf of Simon V of Lippe, who had just become count.

Originally, later-born son Johann Adolf was supposed to become Bishop of Bremen and Lübeck, but when his two brothers died, he had to fight for the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein. Minting portugalesers was part of the diplomatic game. Künker will offer three of these rare portugalesers in their upcoming auction.

“We continue to live in the good old days of the Republic.” This is what Augustus wanted to convey to his contemporaries after the bloody civil war. But his completely new and high-quality coins speak an entirely different language, as Florian Haymann points out.

So, how do we decide what motifs to feature on coins? Well, coin motifs usually refer to themes that we identify with as a society or a nation and that are generally highly regarded. Of course, what we consider to be ‘coin worthy’ changes over time. A great example for this are comics.

We should all read Thucydides says historian Marek Węcowski. Because the Greek historiographer described meticulously the social consequences of an epidemic in his own time. Thus we may anticipate the most urgent tasks to tackle after Covid-19.

In 1971 the United Kingdom became the last major country to decimalise its currency – after 143 years of thorough consideration! Follow Simon Bytheway on a trip to Brahmi numerals, Cathedrals, and a world of ‘bobs’, ‘tanners’ and ‘farthings’ …

As a result of the Turkish war, Rudolf saw his God-given omnipotence tarnished. Thus, the melancholy emperor sought refuge in his art collection, for which he always had money. However, this didn’t help him against his ambitious brother Matthias.

On his coins, Rudolf II displayed the high aspirations he had for his reign. However, day-to-day business was though and then war broke out against the Turks. And medals played a crucial role in it.

Rudolf II went down in history as an unworldly emperor hiding in the witches’ kitchens of alchemists. His brothers stole his imperial crown while he was still alive. Justly? Unjustly? Let’s try to answer this question.