The Görlitz Silesian Museum has the best Silesian numismatic collection outside Berlin and Breslau/Wrocław. This is thanks to three outstanding collectors and experts on Silesian numismatics: Kurt Baschinski, Fritz Peter Maercker and Norbert Jaschke. Their collections entered the Silesian Museum between the years 1999 and 2002 – either as acquisitions or as permanent loans from the Federal Republic of Germany, respectively the heirs Matthias and Christoph Jaschke. In the course of time, many further donations have been added, so today’s collection, consisting of some 3.000 objects, provides a rich stock of coins from nine centuries plus medals and paper money, particularly token money.

The oldest coin is a silver Denar from the end of the 11th century considered to rank among the first coins ever minted in Silesia. The total amount of about 1.150 coins displayed at the museum extends to the middle of the 20th century. The collection was comprehensively presented for the first time in the frame of this exhibition and in the publication “Heads or Tails. The History of Money in Silesia“.

There is another part of the collection including some 250 badges, medals, plaques and gems.

Loan from Jaschke, photo: Janos Stekovics, © SMG