Haymann, Florian/Kötz, Stefan/Müseler, Wilhelm Runde Geschichte. Europa in 99 Münz-Episode

using selected numismatic finds, the book offers an outline of the eventful history of Europe from antiquity to the euro. Questions of monetary history are dealt with as well as trade history or military and religious history. Coins are among the most important dating aids and, in addition to their function as money, they also provide information on trade contacts, alliances, hoarding in bad times (impressively up-to-date) or the political representation of individual rulers.

Europe - a continent and its history in coins. As early as the 6th century, Cassiodorus aptly formulated the most important additional function that coins fulfilled in addition to their material value: medial communication. Since the beginning of coinage about 2700 years ago, every coin has been given a message. In the most compact way, state representation merges with the history of rulers and events, economic and social history, religious, intellectual and cultural history. The 39 authors of the volume use the complexity and density of the coin messages to fill the concept of Europe with historical substance. The coins are a direct reflection of the time from which they originate: Starting with the rise of Greece, the "cradle of democracy", up to the European Union, they bear witness to quite a few conflicts in a confined space between nations that invoked their respective collective identities. Only after the last of the two devastating wars of the 20th century and its economically ruinous consequences was the pressure to act towards an understanding in Europe great enough to realise the idea of the European Union. And this in turn finds its most tangible expression in the form of money: the euro. The uniform design of the obverse with the discreet geographical relief of Europe and the reverse of the coin, individually designed by each member state, show diversity within the community and this should be the message of our time!