The National & Academic Library (BNU) has been striving to collect all Alsatian coins and medals since its beginnings in 1873, with an aim of exhaustivity. Before we can reach this goal, the BNU's collection, in addition to these of the City of Strasbourg, offers the largest overview of Alsatian mintage, spanning over millennia.
Indeed, coins have been minted in Alsace since the Merovingian dynasty in the 5th century. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and to the end of the Thirty Years' War, most cities, abbeys, principalities, and places of power had their own mint, with varying degrees of productivity and importance. This gave rise to an important and diverse production of coins. This production only stopped in 1870 for Strasbourg, but kept going occasionally throughout the 20th century (for scrip) and is still active in the present day (Alsatian euro coins and complementary currency).
As for medals, their production spreads from the 16th centiry to nowadays.
To complete your exploration, we also invite you to browse through the collection of antique currencies from the University of Strasbourg.
The BNU keeps the documents from the personal libraries of philosopher Jacques Maritain (1882-1973), his wife Raïssa (née
Dépositaire du dépôt légal sous diverses formes depuis 1871, la Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire conserve l’une des plus
These twenty-eight drawings come from the collections of the former Musée des Beaux-Arts de Mulhouse, then administered by the
