Coin collecting is a hobby that attracts some of the most diverse people in the world. One of the people in history that collected coins was Emperor Maximilian of the Holy Roman Empire.
Coin Collecting is a hobby that often starts by people saving coins that they received in circulation but for some reason they found interesting. It could be a coin from a trip, or just an interesting looking coin.
Emperor Maximilian sat on the throne as Roman emperor from 1508 ñ 1519. He was an emperor that was fascinated with coin collecting, and he ruled with his father from 1508 until his death 11 years later in 1519.
He was known for expanding the influence of the House of Habsburg through fighting a war and through marriage, but he was also an emperor of Rome that lost some territory during his reign, notably the Austrian territory that makes up what is now Switzerland.
Emperor Maximilian was said to be fascinated with coins, and had an extensive collection by the time of his death. He arranged for several of his children and grandchildren to marry different members of the royal families of Bohemia and Hungary.
Maximilian died in Upper Austria and was succeeded as Emperor by his Grandson Charles V, because his son Phillip the Handsome died in 1506. Maximilian is buried in the Castle Chapel at Wiener Neustadt.
Coin collecting was dubbed “the Hobby of Kings”, and Maximilian was known to be an enthusiastic coin collector. The collecting of coins became something of a craze among people of nobility and royalty, and Maximilian was said to have one of the most extensive collections by the time of his death.
He was also known to collect tokens and medals, which is the branch of coin collecting known as exonumia. Sometimes medals and tokens constructed from metal during the time of Emperor Maximilian were actually used as legal tender, and royalty during the reign of Maximilian would often compare and trade from their personal collections.