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Coins, medals and coin-like objects from Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia and the Palatinate in modern times

The collection of coins, medals and coin-like objects from Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia and the Palatinate in modern times is one of the most important focal points at the Staatliche Münzsammlung München (State Coin Collection Munich). The diversity of the pieces, from everyday money to stamps and money substitutes to outstanding works of medal art, reflects Bavaria's eventful history from the end of the Middle Ages to the 21st century with all its in part meanwhile historical links. The selection not only allows the objects to be viewed from an art history perspective, but Bavaria's mentality and its social, everyday and economic history over a period of more than 500 years is literally made tangible in the circular coins.

For example, the early 17th century coins illustrate a prince's concept of reign by the grace of God on the one hand through their design of images and legends. On the other hand, the continuously decreasing silver content in the small change coins of that time was already a symptom of looming inflation during the "Kipper and Wipper" financial crisis. The broad masses at the bottom of the social pyramid, however, relied on dealing with this small change whose value was rapidly declining. The effects were to be correspondingly devastating. Almost at the same time, Maximilian I (1597-1651) had medals minted in 1623 to mark the acquisition of the Bavarian electorship, an unparalleled political turning point. The majority of his subjects remained largely unimpressed by this and were more interested in slowly stabilising the monetary system, not least by issuing good-quality Bavarian half batzen coins. They also attempted to alleviate such hardship and distress through pilgrimages. The abundance of Bavarian pilgrimage medals still bears witness to this today.

After secularisation and mediatisation in the early 19th century, money was only minted by the Bavarian monarchs. The monetary policy plight at the end of the First World War and the drama of the subsequent hyperinflation in the early 1920s were reflected in Bavaria, among other things, in the mass of emergency coins issued. While the German influences of the Reich and later the Federal Republic often lacked the former diversity of design, in the 20th century it was above all the medallists' small works of art that offered themselves as reflective surfaces for the most diverse facets of our Bavarian homeland to this day.

The other part collections of "Coins, medals and coin-like objects from Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia and the Palatinate in modern times" available on bavarikon

>> This collection is part of the holdings of the Staatliche Münzsammlung München (State Coin Collection Munich).