“Sing, Muse, of the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles…”
You believe that Paris abducted Helena? Which was why the Greek destroyed Troy? What if it was completely different? The later Trojans in Roman Imperial Times adhered to an entirely different version of the story – and so they celebrated their hero Hector on their coins.
Munich, the German Mecca for Coin Collectors
No other city in Germany offers such an accumulation of well-known coin auction houses in a relatively confined space as Munich does. On and around the Maximiliansplatz such important companies are located as...
Macedonia becomes a province
A rare Macedonian tetradrachm, minted around 147 B. C., tells a story from the beginnings of the Roman province of Macedonia. The rarity is to be auctioned off in the upcoming Künker autumn auction sale to be conducted between the 7th and the 11th October 2013.
Philip II of Pomerania and his coin dealer Philipp Hainhofer
Around 1600, coin collecting was “the” leisure activity of the intellectual elite. The emperor himself was an avid collector. He was imitated by many noblemen among them Philip II of Pomerania, who put together a great art collection in cooperation with Philipp Hainhofer.
Emperors bearing Gifts
June 9, 2017, Münzen und Medaillen GmbH will auction off the Markus Weder collection at Weil am Rhein featuring some extremely rare miliarense. Claire Franklin will tell us the story of these coins.
Medieval Sicily Part 1: The Byzantines
Since ancient times, Sicily has been a cultural melting pot, a junction of Africa and Europe, of West and East. The Byzantines even temporarily moved their capital there.
Collecting Seleukid Coins – Part II
David Michaels provides an overview of the history and coinage of the Seleukid Empire. The article also includes a rarity guide and a brief bibliography of historical and numismatic references to get any new collector started on the path to a thriving collection.
Honni soit qui mal y pense or What exactly was the spintriae’s function?
One has to pay high prices indeed for the so-called spintriae – brothel tokens as one is secretly whispered to. There are experts who know exactly what the function of these objects was...
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 ...
Drachm, Dirham, Crown and Pound
Our sponsor, the MoneyMuseum in Zurich, will soon issue a second, revised edition of its booklet on money and currencies in history. We present the new text here on the Internet...