In the Hobby of Kings, Who are the Kings?

Zoins

When did the moniker "Hobby of Kings" get attached to coin collecting?

How many Kings actually had notable coins with provenance today?

Here's a growing list thanks to the thread participants

1. Egypt: King Farouk bin Fuad
2. Italy: King Vittorio Emanuele Ferdinando Maria Gennaro di Savoia
3. Muscat: Sultan Sayyid Sa'id-bin-Sultan
4. Siam: King Nangklao (Rama III)

Here are some current kings and queens. Do any of these collect?

1. Belgium: King Philipp Leopold Ludwig Maria
2. Brunei: Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah: an avid Ferrari collector, but I don't know that he collects coins
3. Denmark: Queen Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid
4. Japan: Emperor Akihito Shinnō
5. Jordan: King Abdullah bin Hussein Al Hashim
6. Norway: King Harald V
7. Saudi Arabia: King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
8. Spain: King Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Grecia
9. Sweden: King Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus
10. Thailand: King Maha Vajiralongkorn
11. UK: Queen Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor

From looking at the roster of some top collectors, the hobby seems to be more:

• The Hobby of Billionaires
• The Hobby of Business Owners
• The Hobby of Entrepreneurs

Eagleguy

Anybody with more money than me

coinkat

It is the hobby of anyone that wishes to explore history, art and design.

291fifth

Victor Emanuel III of Italy

ricko

@Zoins ... You come up with some of the most interesting questions...must be something in your coffee Just as horse racing has been known as the 'sport of kings', it likely refers to the fact that such things were for the wealthy. Poor people needed coins for necessities of life. Cheers, RickO

Zoins

@291fifth said:
Victor Emanuel III of Italy

Great info! I added him to the list above.

Here's an article on this:

https://coinsweekly.com/a-king-at-a-pinch-the-stolen-coin-collection-of-victor-emmanuel-iii-of-italy/

Hence, it seemed that the time for the King had come, but of course Hitler could not put up with that arbitrary act of an ally. The German troops invaded Italy and seized Rome. In the very last second, the King and his family had managed to resort to Allied protection with which a treaty had been negotiated on the unconditional surrender of the Italian forces on September 3rd, 1943.

During the following months, the Italian numismatists faced the cussedness of German censorship. The Rivista Italiana Numismatica was objected to. It seems hard to imagine numismatic papers containing any subversive messages but the censors nevertheless insisted that the numbers 77, 84 and 100 of the catalogue raisonné of Dottore G. G. Belloni’s orbituary had to be blackened. Why was that? Well, the man had reviewed the Corpus Nummorum Italicorum, and his review’s caption included the words di S. M. il Re“ (= CNI of his Majesty the King). That was unthinkable! The King had to disappear from numismatics. For the same reason, the first page of the Rivista had to be printed again – it was not opportune anymore to call the honorary president Victor Emmanuel by name.

Italian numismatics (and the local population) was fortunate just the same. On June 4th, 1944, the Allied Force managed to take over Rome. The way was free for the King to rule again but, in order to do that, he would have had to explain himself to his allies. He did not want to do that anymore. Instead, he appointed his son Umberto governor-general. That is the situation the Nebelspalter caricature refers to: for the smiling reader it pictures the career options the resigning King had from then on.

Apart from that, the significant coin collection was stolen by the German occupying troops and it remained missing for many years, even after the war was already over. From the orbituary of Victor Emmanuel, published in RIN 1949 , who died on December 28th, 1947, it can be learned that the collection was found – in which Italian museum the collection is hidden today this article’s author was not able to spot. May be a reader can be of service?

It is perhaps also an interesting enterprise to spend the next holiday in the big coin cabinets in Italy to search for the collection of the King who had donated it to the Italian government on May 9th, 1946.

Mr_Spud

King of Siam?

cccoins

James, king of William?
King of Carson City?

oldabeintx

Louis XIV collected medals, as did George II's wife Caroline. I suspect that if you go back far enough you will find numerous examples insofar as medals are concerned. Ditto coins.

Zoins

@oldabeintx said:
Louis XIV collected medals, as did George II's wife Caroline. I suspect that if you go back far enough you will find numerous examples insofar as medals are concerned. Ditto coins.

Good info. More to read up on. Are any coins and medals provenanced to them?

Napoleon certainly had a lot of medals made during his Emperorship, but I don't know if he collected yet.

Hallco

Good King Wenceslas based on timing of this topic!

oldabeintx

@Zoins said:

@oldabeintx said:

Good info. More to read up on. Are any coins and medals provenanced to them?

The British museum has some medals that were collected by either GII or Caroline, I lean towards Caroline. I suspect that many museums have numismatic collections that include items that have a royal provenance, just like other works of art.

BryceM

In my opinion, the kings of the hobby are the ones having the most fun.

In my local club, there are tons of guys having a ball mashing circulation finds into albums.

Rarity

Jeff Bezos of Amazon in my opinion

CoinJunkie

Coinjunkie just a pawn in the Hobby of Kings.

Namvet69

@coinkat you nailed it! Merry Christmas. Peace Roy

Crypto

I think TDN and cardinal are worthy of long term reverence for their collections built. Although I am not sure if modern collectors will be discredited for not holding their sets longer/until the end as was often the case previously. Newman is the class of this cen IMHO

Exbrit

King George III

sparky64

I am the monarch of all I survey.

neildrobertson

The Saxon royal collection is still intact and has been added to consistently for hundreds of years. Of course, there were varying degrees of interest from the dukes and kings over the centuries.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Münzkabinett

Zoins

@neildrobertson said:
The Saxon royal collection is still intact and has been added to consistently for hundreds of years. Of course, there were varying degrees of interest from the dukes and kings over the centuries.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Münzkabinett

Very interesting! It mentions Duke of Saxony, George the Bearded, no others specifically..

The Münzkabinett is one of Dresden’s oldest museums, dating back to the time of Duke George the Bearded (1500–1539).[2] Over the centuries the collection has expanded through the constant acquisition of items by the Electors and Kings of Saxony. At the turn of the 18th century, the Dresden Münzkabinett was already a famous coin collection in Europe. The collection became a universal one during the Baroque period. Beginning in the second half of the 18th century, the Münzkabinett also developed into an important German center of scholarly research.[2]

There are 7 Kings of Saxony on this page. I wonder which ones collected coins and can museum collection coins be attributed to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rulers_of_Saxony#Kingdom_of_Saxony

Eldorado9

Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. "King of Coins"

TwoSides2aCoin

Whoever joins the hobby is, in fact, a king in training.

vplite99

I like, "King of Hobbies.”

TurtleCat

In the hobby of kings, I’m just a grade 2 pawn. ♟

Walkerfan

Anyone can participate in this hobby. The degree that you choose is based on your comfort level and means. This is what makes it so great! I have seen normal, average people assemble fantastic collections, because of their skill in and knowledge of numismatics.

jedm

@sparky64 said:
I am the monarch of all I survey.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=4cvoq8ybE7o
Alternate version:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ImwSLUJIM