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[Queen Esther]

 http://www.jehovataler.de/uk/index.php

Dear reader!

The author of this book, Hans-Peter Marquardt, died after a long and serious illness on November 14th, 2011. This book was his last major project. He worked on it with great passion until the very end.

The family

 

Profile of the Author

Mr. Marquardt was born on June 7, 1943 in a barrack of the air base in Kamp in Pomerania. His father was based there; he had to fly the supply-flights for the German government. In 1945 his mother and her four children were able to flee from Stralsund to Copenhagen on a hospital ship of the navy. They were resettled in a German refugee camp in Lingen/ Ems in 1947. Here, Mr. Marquardt grew up and was trained to be a machinist and building fitter (1957-1960). After 1962 he moved to Berlin. There he worked in the production of passenger coaches of rail vehicles. He had to install the train lighting. During this work he came into close contact with asbestos - a fact that led to a dreadful lung disease forty years later.

In 1972 his life changed; he started working at the PTB (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt) - the German Federal Physics Institute. There he worked in the sector of scientific-technical infrastructure until his retirement in 2008.

In 1975, he read the article “Der Name Gottes im deutschen Sprachgebrauch kein Geheimnis“ (“The name of God in the German use of language – no secret”) in a magazine. This interesting article influenced his later work. Two rain-swept family vacations in the Allgaeu (a southern German region in Swabia) led to the decision to visit all churches in the area and to look for the name of God there. Soon the family discovered the joy of this activity. So the next vacations were planned in order to visit new areas and countries. All discoveries of the name of God were filmed, photographed and documented. Until 1980, Mr. Marquardt produced three color films which were presented in the Berlin area about one hundred times.

 A friend offered him a Nuremberg Jehovahthaler in 1978, and he was astonished to find the name of God even on such an object. So he decided on an impulse to visit the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg in order to investigate whether there are more of these coins. He was very pleased to find more of them there. In 1987, he already possessed four own Jehovahthaler, and an article in the numismatic journal “Mu¨nzen Revue” from February 1987 about the topic “Symbolic depictions of God on European coins and medals” caught his attention. A short time later, the “General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts”, written by Ersch and Gruber in 1838 (German title: “Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Ku¨nste von Ersch und Gruber“), fell into his hands. Then he realized that the so-called Jehovahthaler was an own category of coins and that there has to be a larger number of coins and medals of that kind.

Now he was infected by a virus. Mr. Marquardt wanted to find out more. Yet he tried to find out everything about these coins. How did the name of God find its way into numismatics and onto coins and medals? Did that happen just for reasons of propaganda or was there a certain religiousness of the rulers behind it? Why and how did the name disappear later? The attempt to find the answers to these questions determined all his activities. This, in turn, had a positive effect on his whole family. Everybody tries to support him in some way or other down to the present day.

If you want to attribute the competence to write a book about the name of God on coins, medals, or other objects, you have to mention Mr. Marquardt foremost. He has been travelling across Europe with international directories for 35 years, and in spite of his serious illness he still undertook four journeys abroad last year. He studied the numismatic literature for more than 20 years and visited the numismatic collections in Bern, Harlem, Nuremberg, Berlin, Copenhagen, Uppsala and Gdansk. His own picture library currently comprises about 5,000 photographs. He could write down only a part of his extensive expert knowledge in this book.

The Name Jehovah at the Time of the European Reformation"

– documentation and illustrated book –

The new book is the only one in the English numismatic literature dealing with this topic. It is based on the translation of the German book “God´s Name on Coins, Talers and Medals” (see above), which has been published in December 2004. That book deals especially with the German-speaking countries in Europe. The author used the last five years to carry out investigations in other European counties and a lot of new material came to light. The importance of the single countries had to be arranged in a completely new way. Now each county is dealt with in detail according to its importance. Poland and its free Hanseatic City Gdansk has been added. The reader can be pleased about the fact that he can find more than twice as many coins, medals and other objects and buildings bearing the name of God within this fantastic and unique illustrated book. The book consists of 842 pages. There are 676 illustrations which are throughout in color. The price is 25.00 € plus shipping costs. This book is only available in English.

God's Name on Coins, Talers and Medals"

This book tells the story of the Jehovah coins and –medals from their first appearance in the 16th century until their displacement in the 18th century. It shows coins and medals from the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Poland (Danzig) and Germany which carry the name Jehovah in various forms. The story of this epoch is brought to life by a series of exciting articles, which convey much background information.

Coins always have been more than merely currency. For example, theological characteristics began to be coined in the Middle Ages. Until now Jehovah talers and – medals have hardly been researched in the numismatics, the science of coins. This book wants to prove that these prints reflect the outstanding time of European history: the reformation. This time refers back to the 16th century of Europe. It was one of the most dynamic epochs of that time.

The author, who has been active in the research of numismatics since two decades, takes his readers on a voyage that is exciting as well as informative.

Between the 16th and 18th century these coins shaped the political and religious scenery of Europe and reached beyond it`s time.

The book consists of 205 pages. There are 126 illustrations which are throughout in color. The price is 15.00 € plus shipping costs. This book is only available in German.

I  hope,  all  Jehovah - coin  -  friends  can  enjoy !