Numismatics

The history of the Münzkabinett Frankfurt begins in 1749 with a striking event: Katharina von Barckhaus donated her coin collection, consisting of 3,296 Greek and Roman coins, to the city of Frankfurt. This laid the foundation for today's collection.

Since then, the collection has been considerably expanded through numerous purchases and donations: today it comprises more than 150,000 numismatic objects. The collection covers the entire numismatic field: ancient coins (Greek, Roman), the Middle Ages, modern times, medals, banknotes, emergency money, medals, signs and tokens as well as pre-monetary means of payment. The Frankfurt section is particularly striking: it contains almost all the coins and banknotes minted in Frankfurt - from Charlemagne's pfennig to the euro.

One focus is on medals and commemorative pieces relating to Frankfurt events and people, especially the imperial coronations. The cabinet also has a series of dies documenting the coin and medal production process.

The collection also contains coinage from all mint states in Germany. It was acquired in 1939 by the Frankfurt merchant Ernst Lejeune and was the most important private collection of German coins in the world. The focus here is on the Rhine-Main region with excellent series of coins from Hesse, Hanau, Friedberg, Mainz, Solms and Sayn.

Collection catalogs

Gisela Förschner, Papal history on medals. Historiae o. sacrum decus. Frankfurt am Main, Historical Museum, 1978. 63 p., ill. (Small publications of the Historical Museum Frankfurt. Vol. 11)

Gisela Förschner, Small art in silver. Screw coins and screw medals. Frankfurt am Main, Historical Museum, 1978. 75 p., Ill. (Small publications of the Historical Museum Frankfurt. Vol. 10)

Gisela Förschner and Franz Lerner, Frankfurt money 400 years ago. Frankfurt am Main, Historical Museum, 1980. 75 p., Ill.

Gisela Förschner, Goethe in the art of medals. Historical Museum Frankfurt am Main. Melsungen, Gutenberg, 1982. 343 p., ill. (Small publications of the Historical Museum Frankfurt. Vol. 16)

Gisela Förschner, Glass pastes, cut stones, Arabic coin weights. Collections of the Coin Cabinet from the bourgeois educational heritage of the 19th century in Frankfurt am Main. Historical Museum Frankfurt. Melsungen, Gutenberg, 1982. 111 p., ill. (Small publications of the Historical Museum Frankfurt. Vol. 15)

Gisela Förschner, The coins of the Celts. Historical Museum Frankfurt am Main. Melsungen, Gutenberg, 1983. 88 p., mostly ill. (Small publications of the Historical Museum Frankfurt. Vol. 18)

Gisela Förschner, German Coins. Medieval to modern times of the minting estates from Aachen to Augsburg. Volume 1 (no longer published). Historical Museum Frankfurt am Main, Coin Cabinet. Melsungen, Publ. Gutenberg, 1984. 281 p., ill.

Gisela Förschner, The Coins of the Greeks in Italy and Sicily. The holdings of the Coin Cabinet. Historical Museum Frankfurt am Main. Melsungen, Gutenberg, 1986. 230 p., ill. (Small publications of the Historical Museum Frankfurt. Vol. 27)

Gisela Förschner, The Coins of the Roman Emperors in Alexandria. The holdings of the Coin Cabinet. Frankfurt am Main, Historisches Museum, 1987. 455 p., ill. (Small publications of the Historical Museum Frankfurt. Vol. 35)

Gisela Förschner, Frankfurt coronation medals from the holdings of the Coin Cabinet. Frankfurt am Main, Historisches Museum, 1992. 557 p., ill. (Small publications of the Historical Museum Frankfurt. Vol. 49)

Gisela Förschner, Money circulation in the Frankfurt area from 1572 to 1697. A coin hoard find from Ober-Wöllstadt from the holdings of the Coin Cabinet. Frankfurt am Main, Historical Museum, 1995. 183 p., ill. (Small publications of the Historical Museum Frankfurt. Vol. 51)

Hans-Christoph Noeske, The Coins of the Ptolemies. The holdings of the Coin Cabinet. Historisches Museum Frankfurt am Main, 2000. 189 p., ill. (Publications of the Historical Museum Frankfurt. Vol. 21)

Werner Helmut Stahl, Frankfurt Marks and Signs. Frankfurt am Main, Historisches Museum, 2004. 807 p., Ill. (Schriften des Historischen Museums Frankfurt. Vol. 24) Werner Helmut Stahl, Marken und Zeichen des 14. bis 19. Jahrhunderts, Frankfurt 2012. 526 p., Ill.