The coin collection of the Meissen-based businessman Ernst Otto Horn (1880-1945), which comprises more than 46,000 items, is believed to be the last remaining privately owned universal collection in Saxony. A settlement agreement in 2010 between the Free State of Saxony and the Otto-und-Emma-Horn-Stiftung charitable foundation, the collection’s owners, formed the basis for the acquisition of numismatic objects from the collection.
With financial support from the Free State of Saxony, donations from Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG, Osnabrück, and a further donation from a private collector, a total of 10,554 items of great significance for both scholars and museums was secured for the Dresden Münzkabinett, and thus for the public at large.
This exhibition presents objects of outstanding quality and rarity, specially selected from these acquisitions. A total of 260 coins and medals, dating from the 10th to the 20th century, are displayed. There is a specific focus on coins from Meissen-Saxony, struck in the mediaeval period, and modern-period Saxon coins and medals of the Albertine and Ernestine lines of the Wettin dynasty. Outstanding examples of the thaler, minted in the various Imperial Circles (“Reichskreis”), divisions of the Holy Roman Empire, as well as a selection of Italian coins, all of which greatly enhance the museum’s collections, are also featured, and the objects themselves are complemented by associated documents and publications. This exhibition not only provides insight into the beauty and diversity of a previously private coin collection of outstanding importance, but also acknowledges the contribution of Ernst Otto Horn as a patron and lover of the arts.
