October 28th, 2010 – Heidrun Höhn founder of “Leipziger Münzhandlung und Auktion” passed away after a long and serious illness on October 20th, 2010. The numismatic community loses a committed coin dealer and an authority concerning Thuringo-Saxon numismatics.
Heidrun Höhn was acquainted with coins at an early age by her brother the well-known numismatist Gerd Behr. In her youth she worked on her broad knowledge, with which she impressed even scholars. She started to collect and soon got involved in the “Kulturbund”, then unavoidable for collectors living in the GDR. She was chairperson of the local committee “Numismatics” in Gera, then member of the central committee “Numismatics” of the federal executive board. In 1986 she became head of the department “Numismatics” of the GDR state-owned art trade.
Three years later the Wall fell. Many careers stopped dead in their tracks. Heidrun Höhn realized the possibilities this new situation offered. On July 1st, 1990 she founded the “Leipziger Münzhandlung und Auktion Heidrun Höhn”. Only one year later she held her first public auction. Since then the yellow catalogues have become an inherent part of the international coin trade. Since 1993 Heidrun Höhn was member of the Verband der Deutschen Münzhändler, since 2003 of the International Association of Professional Numismatists.
Heidrun Höhn never forgot her roots. “Her” collectors loved her. They adored her down-to-earthness, her enthusiasm and her helpfulness. Her colleagues appreciated her assertiveness, her consequence and her knowledge.
Besides her numismatic competence, Heidrun Höhn was a woman, who loved to laugh, who radiated joy of living, who was able to reconcile a happy family live with her career.
With Heidrun Höhn, the numismatic community looses one of these rare women, who shaped the numismatic live in Germany. We want to express our heartfelt sympathy with her husband Manfred and her daughters Christina and Saskia, who have to continue now without her.