We are proud to have auctioned off three of the most extensive and most significant collections of coins, medals and paper money from the Netherlands in recent years: the Beuth, Verschoor and Genaert Collections. We talk about the fascination of this special field of collecting.

In 2025, we will auction off the special collection of a "Numisnautiker" (= numisnautist). But what does numisnautics actually refer to? Briefly said, this term is a variation of the better-known word “numismatics”, i.e. the study of coins. The first part of the word is combined with “nautics”, i.e. the study of ships, which is derived from the Latin “navis” (= ship). Therefore, a numisnautist is a collector who collects all coins that depict ships, ship components or related motifs.

To mark the sale of the Wohnlich Collection, we have created a little guide to collecting Tyrolean coins and medals.

Herbert Wenzel was born on 28 September 1904 in Linz, the son of engineer Viktor Wenzel, who was a Machine Commissioner of the Imperial and Royal State Railway Directorate in Linz, and his wife Eugenie, née Hlauzal. In 1907, the family moved to Vienna, where Herbert’s father had been transferred to the Imperial and Royal Railway Ministry. After graduating from high school in 1923, he studied law at the University of Vienna, obtaining his doctorate in 1928. After several years as a Postal Commissioner, Dr Herbert Wenzel was appointed to the Ministry of Trade in 1934, and in the same year he married Helene Wornitzer. His precise and successful work at the ministry was recognised in 1937 with the Austrian Gold Medal of Merit. Due to the political situation in Austria and the National Socialists’ seizure of power, Dr Wenzel was dismissed from his post in 1938. After military service in the Second World War and captivity as a prisoner of war, he was reinstated as a civil servant in 1945 and appointed to the Federal Ministry of Transport. In 1949, he was appointed Ministerialrat (senior civil servant).

On November 25, 2022, the European Commission published the list of gold coins that fulfill the criteria of Article 344(1)(2) of the VAT Directive (VAT Directive) for the year 2024 in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ EU 2022 No. C 448 p. 4). The German Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) has also published this list in addition to the publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.