German Numismatic Musicians

A Newman Portal user asked if we had the volume Musica in Nummis (1907) by Karl Andorfer and Richard Epstein. The answer was no, but we were able to locate it on a public domain site and add it to our collection. The work, in German, is a compilation of 984 medals with musical themes and includes 9 plates. The effort is obviously akin to Jay Galst's Ophthalmologia in Nummis and other numismatic works that specialize in a single (non-numismatic) subject.

In cataloging this item, we learned that Paul Niggl acquired the collection that formed the basis for the 1907 work and expanded it over time. Niggl published an updated version of the catalog in 1965, entitled Musiker-Medaillen and now including 2,349 items. Niggl's collection was sold in a single lot by Spink and Son (July 14, 1998, lot 403), and appeared again, in multiple lots, in a November 2008 Baldwin sale.

We had to ask our favorite German-speaking numismatic musician if they were aware of this collection, and the answer was surprisingly no.

Image: Plate V from Musica in Nummis

Link to Musica in Nummis on Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/musicainnummis/page/n1/mode/2up?view=theater