Salzburg Museum
At the museum’s founding in 1834, the coins and medals of the former independent archiepiscopal foundation of Salzburg were an important part not only of the collection but also of the presentation. The collection grew at a significant rate in the following decades. Its development was especially encouraged by the fact that several curators were simultaneously the foremost numismatists in Salzburg at that time. Above all Karl Roll (1850–1934) made an important contribution to it – the City of Salzburg has even named a street after him. The purchase of the Roll Collection ultimately made the museum collection the most comprehensive of its kind. The inventory suffered a grave and irreplaceable loss shortly after the end of the Second World War. After American soldiers transported the holdings to Hallein in 1945 – they had been salvaged in Dürrnberg – almost half the total inventory of Salzburg coins and medals went missing, among them nearly all rare and unique objects. Since then, a number of important pieces have been bought back.The heart of the collection consists in the Salzburg coins and medals. Coins were minted from the tenth century until 1810 with only few interruptions in Salzburg and several other cities and towns of the archiepiscopal foundation. In the Middle Ages and the sixteenth century, the coins minted here – contingent to the rich precious metal deposits in the Salzburg region – wielded great economic influence far beyond Salzburg. In the Early Modern Age important artists and dye cutters literally