gxseries
Jan 28 2007, 12:15 PM
tabbs
Jan 28 2007, 01:40 PM
Don't know how these cards were made, but there were/are several similar projects. I have a 200 kc coin (a commem from the Czech Rep.), for example, which came with a coin card similar to the ones you show here. So I got the coin, and also a relief image of the coin in a silverish color, printed on blue cardboard that has the technical info and specifications. Neat.
In Germany, about 30 years ago, a publishing house started an ambitious plan: They wanted to print the designs of all commems ever issued in the Federal Republic, including those that won a second, third ... prize but were not chosen for minting. The publisher, Harry M. Buchberger, was able to get many of the original plaster models, restored them, made bronze copies, reduced them so that an engraving company in Munich could produce brass stamps. Then, some company in Berlin made silver foils from these stamps.
I think the plan was to "embed" those foils in acryl to make them stable. But the plans died due to a lack of interest and/or because the manufacturing costs were too high. Buchberger finally sold most of what had been made so far to Nord LB (a bank in Northern Germany). Some of the copies, brass stamps, etc. were auctioned off by Busso Peus in the late 90s ...
Some of these models were shown in the exhibition "GeldKunst - KunstGeld" (2005/06), and the exhibition catalog has an article about Buchberger's project. That article, however, also mentions (briefly) earlier "collections" using similar techniques. In the mid-19c for example, Ferdinand Fliessbach published a coin catalog called Neueste Münzkunde - two volumes with many "lithographic tables in gold and silver relief printing". Have not seen those books, but they are apparently relatively rare and expensive nowadays.
Christian
Art
Jan 28 2007, 03:27 PM
The postcards are neat. I have one somewhere in my books. It's being used as a page marker. I think I got it in an auction back on NumisAddict.