The Road to Germany's Common Currency

In the years between 1800 and 1914, Germany developed from an agricultural patchwork of countless separate territories into a unified industrial nation. If you are interested in German history, you will be familiar with the major steps of this development: from the student protests after the Congress of Vienna to the failed revolution of 1848, Prussia's three and the founding of the German Empire.

So, was the German nation-state the result of patriotic sentiment combined with Prussia's high ambitions as a military power? That would be too much of a simplification, after all, economic factors also played into this. Customs barriers and the different currencies that circulated in a myriad of small states hampered trade and were increasingly considered medieval by citizens. Countries such as France and Great Britain had long become unified economic areas and were discussing free trade agreements. Germany still had a long way to go.

Therefore, German politicians in the 19th century endeavored to facilitate the exchange of goods and to harmonize currencies. Coinage treaties gradually paved the way for the common currency that was introduced in the new German Empire. We will illustrate this development with the coins of the Double Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, of which some rare and outstandingly preserved pieces can be found in Künker's auction 388. The sale will be held on 22 June 2023 and present a North German private collection under the title .

To read the complete article, see:
From Taler to Mark: The Long Road to a Common Currency(https://www.kuenker.de/en/information/presseinformationen/aktuelle-mitteilungen/491)

Batman's Giant Penny

When a criminal who called himself Penny Plunderer started operating in Gotham City, Batman deduced that he would strike at the local coin exhibition. The Plunderer was obsessed with Pennies and in the exhibition, there was a giant-sized penny, which was the Plunderer's target along with the first one-cent stamp in history. Batman confronted the Plunderer and used the giant penny to defeat the criminal and his henchmen. It is yet unrevealed how exactly Batman acquired the Penny, but after his victory over the Plunderer, Batman took the giant coin to the Trophy Room of the Batcave, where it has become one of the main features of the place.

To read the complete article, see:
Giant Penny(https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Giant_Penny)

The Joan Rivers Card Catalog

When Joan Rivers died in 2014, ending one of the greatest careers in modern comedy, several groups were interested in acquiring her archives, which included a meticulously organized collection of 65,000 typewritten jokes.

Her daughter, Melissa Rivers, recalled a conversation with a representative from the Smithsonian Institution who wanted the catalog of jokes but said it would not be on permanent display. Her mind instantly went to the final tracking shot of in which the golden Ark of the Covenant is locked inside a crate and placed in a vast warehouse with hundreds of other crates.

Instead, Rivers is donating the extensive collection to the National Comedy Center, the high-tech museum in Jamestown, N.Y., joining the archives of A-list comics like George Carlin and Carl Reiner.

Rivers, who wrote gags at all hours, paid close attention to setups and punchlines, typing them up and cross-referencing them by categories like or or The largest subject area is which includes 1,756 jokes.

To read the complete article, see:
A 'Crown Jewel of Comedy': The Joan Rivers Card Catalog of Jokes Finds a Home(https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/arts/television/joan-rivers-archive.html)