Collection of numismatic auctions catalogues

Since the middle of the 19th century, an enormous amount of numismatic objects has been published in the auction catalogues and stock lists of international coin trading. The mass of this material exceeds the inventories of public collections by far. Therefore, serious numismatic research has to consider these publications as well.

Since the 1960s, our Department has been collecting catalogues of worldwide coin traders (including medals, tokens, decorations, stocks and bonds). We strive to compile a complete collection. However, there are still considerable gaps in some series – in particular, in the catalogues from the pre-war period. The more recent auction catalogues from Austria, Germany and Switzerland are almost complete. The collection of catalogues from other European countries is excellent, but still far from being complete. Regarding auction catalogues from outside Europe, there is still a lot of catching up to do. The collection of catalogues comprises around 31,100 catalogues (as of August 2018) and lists, stored in 200 metres of shelf. For this reason, it is by far the largest collection of its kind in Austria.

We ask you and companies not to discard any current and old catalogues, but rather leave them to the Department. This way, we can guarantee the continuation of the collection and close any gaps in the older series. We use any duplicates to expand the Numismatische Zentralkartei (numismatic central card file), NZK or trade them with other departments. Our catalogue collection is open to the public and is available to students, academics, collectors, and traders.

A complete list of our auction catalogue collection as well as a list of catalogues and inventory lists we are still looking for can now be viewed online:
Our inventory: Auction catalogues and stock lists (January 2024)
List of missing auction catalogues and stock lists (January 2024)
    
In order to continue to expand and improve our catalogue collection, we welcome further donations. . We are particularly interested in auction catalogues and stock lists from Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Great Britain, and Italy. There is also constant demand for catalogues and lists issued before 1945.

If you have catalogues to donate, would like to use the catalogue collection on site or require further information, please send an e-mail to nzk.numismatik@univie.ac.at. Our documentation assistant Chiara Steindl will be happy to deal with your enquiries.

Date – number of catalogues

2012-09-01: 22.700
2013-01-01: 23.400
2013-08-01: 25.000
2014-01-01: 26.000
2014-10-01: 27.000
2015-09-01: 28.200
2016-10-01: 29.500
2017-10-01: 30.400
2018-02-01: 30.750
2018-08-01: 31.100
2019-02-01: 31.600
2023-11-01: 33.900