NEW BOOK: SAMMLUNG FRIEDRICH POPKEN

ZIEGERT, M.

SAMMLUNG FRIEDRICH POPKEN. DIE LÖSER DER BRAUNSCHWEIGISCHEN HERZOGTÜMER 2024

FRIEDRICH POPKEN COLLECTION. THE REDEEMERS OF THE BRUNSWICK DUCHIES 2024

Numismatischer Verlag Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG: Osnabrück 2024.
176 pages, with numerous color illustrations.
ISBN: 978-3-941357-20-4

Friedrich Popken is well-known far beyond the borders of Germany. In the 1980s, he and his wife Ursula had the idea of creating a company that would produce fashionable clothing for plus-size women. Today, Ulla Popken GmbH is part of the Popken Fashion Group, which sells fashion under four different brands in Europe and the U.S.: Ulla Popken, Gina Laura, JP 1880 and Studio Untold. The origins of the fashion company date back to 1880, when Johann Popken founded his textile company in Hameln. Since 2012, the fourth generation of the Popken family, Astrid Popken and her husband Thomas Schneider, have been carrying on the torch.

You can find out all this on Wikipedia. However, Wikipedia will not tell you that Friedrich Popken is one of Germany's most passionate coin collectors. His interests are not only limited to one field – Friedrich Popken has built up various collections over the years. His spectrum ranges from ancient bronze coins to numismatic rarities from Lower Saxony and Northern Germany, coins and medals of the Welf dynasty, the Archbishopric of Salzburg and much more.

He has always had a particular fondness for lösers. This is why he assembled one of the largest collections in this field to date. It comprises 243 pieces, including 13(!) juliuslösers, 7(!) jakobslösers, 10 unique pieces, 6 coins of a type of which only one other specimen is known of, two unpublished varieties and two lösers of which only these specimens are available on the market.

Such a collection is simply too extensive to auction off at once. That is why Friedrich Popken and Künker decided to separate it into small, manageable parts. Since 2021, five Künker auction have featured several dozen lösers each.

While this makes sense from an economic point of view, it complicates matters for those who want to reference the collection. It was therefore decided to publish the entire collection in one monograph. It includes consecutive numbering, but the exact source in the auction catalog as well as the estimate and the hammer price were also given for each individual piece.

Friedrich Popken and Fritz Rudolf Künker have known each other since the early 1970s. A trusting business relationship developed into a deep numismatic friendship. The catalog presenting all lösers of the Friedrich Popken Collection, published in 2024, is a testimony to this friendship.

To read the complete article, see:
German lösers – For Those who Appreciate Multiple Taler (Page 22) (https://www.kuenker.de/data/mitteilungen/Kuenker_Broschuere
_Jakobsloeser_Final_LowRes.pdf)

For more information, or to order, see:
ZIEGERT, M. COLLECTION FRIEDRICH POPKEN. THE REDEEMERS OF THE BRUNSWICK DUCHIES 2024 (https://www.kuenker.de/de/shop/stueck/416184)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
FRIEDRICH POPKEN (1940-2024) (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n33a08.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web