Dr. Busso Peus Nachfolger

Is this a reputable company? Can you please share your experience with this company? Thank you

 

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Yes, and they're very nice people. It's one of the DHL/FedEx firms, though, no postal option.

I've always wondered, was Dr. Busso Peus the name of the 19th century founder of the company?

 

Very reputable. I've bought from them several times.

 

I've purchased some very nice coins from that firm. They have a longstanding, solid reputation.

 

You can read the history of the firm here on their website or a very short history on the British Museum site (very useful source for numismatic biographies, though this one is a bit short). They were an outgrowth of Adolph Hess Nachf., caused by the impact of the Nazi regime on the coin market. Also discussed in Hadrien Rambach's
A List of Coin Dealers in nineteenth-century Germany and his "Provenance glossary" (also useful resources on history of ancient coins and provenance research).

It was named for Dr. Busso Peus (1902-1983) -- not to be confused with his cousin, the politician Busso Peus -- who ran the business from 1933-1943 and 1950-1967. (It seems he was drafted into the military, and then in captivity, 1943-1950, but I don't know the whole story. Rambach writes in his "List of Coin Dealers" that "Peus lost his license to operate in 1943, but obtained it back after the war.")

It's a common tradition at German firms to continue operating under the name of the founder even after gone.

 

Funnily and ironically enough, Busso and Peus resemble the Greek slang and formal words for male genitals.

 

Ah, thank you! I had always wondered. It's a rather distinctive name, both first and last.

I have nothing but good things to say about the customer service there. The coins also seem to be pretty reasonably priced. One can pick up some really nice types for an affordable price.

 

Oh, and another thing, the vcoins listings of theirs may or may not be up to date, case by case. Use their website.

The tiny problem; it's mostly in German, and it's difficult (or impossible) to bookmark a certain coin listing (I bookmark potential coins). I had to screenshot the coins. It didn't take me long to figure out basic searches for Roman and Byzantine coins.

What would the German be for "nice patina"?

 

Here's another interesting article on German coin dealerships with long histories, including Busso Peus: https://coinsweekly.com/germanys-oldest-coin-dealerships/ .

That's why those German provenance listings can take a while to type, like the provenance for the Arcadius solidus I bought last year:

Purchased from Dr. Busso Peus Nachf., Frankfurt, Germany, 1 April 2021. Ex. Auktionen Münzhandlung Sonntag Auktion 33 Lot 36 (23.11. 2020); ex. Auktion 116 München Münzhandlung Karl Kreß [Kress](Otto Helbing Nachfolger), Lot 729 (28.10.1960).

I do find it rather interesting that Karl Kreß followed that tradition by continuing to include the name of Otto Helbing (who had founded the company in 1878) for quite some time after he took over that company in the 1930s -- at least up to 1960 -- even though the circumstances of the acquisition were distinctly questionable, namely a forced sale at a a severe discount through the process of Aryanization. And even though after the war Helbing's company was actually returned to the Hirsch family (Gerhard Hirsch, etc.), which owned the company at the time of the Aryanization. They operated it under their own name (see the Coins Weekly article), so it seems there were two different "successors" of Helbing operating as coin dealers in the 1950s.

 

«Schone Patina». Grading is Sehr schon (vf), Vorzuglich = EF, Fast Stempelglanz = almost uncirculated, Stempelglanz = uncirculated.
(Sorry, I can’t find the two dots that are supposed to be over the o’s on my ipad)

https://www.ma-shops.com/shops/help.php?lang=en&id=11

 

I ordered a coin from them just last week and they sent it registered mail through the Deutsche Post. It's now in the hands of the USPS to be delivered to me later this week.

 

Donna, thanks for sharing that coinsweekly article, I hadn't seen it, but it's now in my biblio notes file!

EDIT: I've edited/moved the erroneous paragraphs about Kress being the one captured by the MFAA to the end with additional comments. Thanks to @Orielensis for pointing it out! (See comments below.)

Re: Karl Kress (1892–1969) and Otto Helbing...

Although he is considered a "red flag" seller (meaning you should show caution with provenances from certain periods, since he sold coins looted from Jewish and other collections/businesses), I wouldn't worry much about yours, given the late date and that it also appeared in later catalogs, meaning those hunting for looted items would've had opportunity to recognize and catalog its publication. (I tried to check up on my Side Pomegranate AR Stater that appeared in a 1961 catalog, and later in Atlan's book, but it's actually not that easy to check looted artifacts oneself.)

Here are a few notes copied from my biblio notes file:

Karl Kress is considered a “Red Flag Name” for looted art in a work’s provenance history according to The Central Registry of Information on Looted Cultural Property, 1933-1945 (noted on the Central Registry website here; only a small number of numismatic objects are noted in the online database and those in the German Lost Art Database are not generally detailed enough to known in detail [e.g., “Collection of 500 Greek Coins”] at https://www.lostart.de/Webs/EN/Datenbank/Suche/; the Art Loss Register charges $95 per search at https://www.artloss.com/).

His role is understated by BCD in his library duplicate sales (Jacquier 44 [13 Sept 2018], 2632):

“A note from BCD: Karl Kress took over from Otto Helbing before WWII and continued offering plentiful collector material up to the mid 80's. ”​

John Spring only indexes a few of Kress's catalogs (your coin's auction is Spring 400), but suggests that Kress continued using the name Otto Helbing Nachf. and numbering the catalogs in the same series all the way to the end, with sale 191 on 2 May 1986! (Though it was run by Kress' wife after his death in 1969.)

(I had forgotten the G. Hirsch connection. John Spring [2009, Ancient Coin Auction Catalogs: 1880-1980] says Gerhard Hirsch, son of Heinrich Hirsch who was senior partner at Helbing in 1939 when Nazis took over, started a new business in 1953, the one that continues today. So perhaps the German government gave him restitution and some property back?)

EDITED PORTIONS:

It appears that Karl Kress (1892-1969) was not the same one captured by the Allies, as Kolbe & Fanning (The Mark & Lottie Salton Numismatic Library - Sale 161 [18 Sep 2021], Lot 346) erroneously suggested:

“Karl Kress, who was personally involved in the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, a Nazi Party organization tasked with the disposition of property stolen from Jews and other victims of the Nazi regime. Kress was taken as a prisoner of war and investigated for war crimes by the U.S. Army Office of Strategic Services' Art Looting Investigation Unit.”​

There is a Karl Kress referenced in the National Archives (“Kress, Karl: Detailed Investigation Report (DIR) No. 10” & blog, “The Text Message,” 21 Aug 2014).

However, it appears that Karl Kress was born in 1900. I'm assuming for now that K&F were mistaken, but plan to email and see if they want to share anything else.

 

Are you certain that this is the same Karl Kreß who took over the firm "Otto Helbing Nf." in 1938? The name is not uncommon.

When I did some research on this matter a while ago (see my post here), I read that the Karl Kreß in question had been a printer from Munich who owned the firm "Kreß & Hornung, Buchdruckerei & Verlag" that had produced auction catalogues for Helbing. The Karl Kress you refer to came from Wiesbaden and was working as a photographer at the State Art Collection at Kassel in the 1930s. Thus I assume that they are not the same person.

 

Wait a second, they used post?!

Mood changes to pensive. And I had to go through Byzantine means to find a DHL cutoff man, grrr. I don't understand. Perhaps it's only for established customers?

However, in my case it would behoove me to find a European DHL cutoff person (convert it to post). I could then order coins from Italy, too.

 

Thank you for brining that up -- it is a good question and definitely worth following up on. I had wondered about that for some time, since the U.S. report does not mention his involvement, so for a long time I figured they were two different people. Seeing him identified as the same Karl Kress by Kolbe & Fanning (and I think others, though I'll need to double-check) in the Salton Library Sale was what gave me confidence it was the same person.

Generally I trust them as a source of history of numismatics (especially in this case, since I suspected the information might have been part of Mark Salton-Schlessinger's documentation, who was exceedingly closely involved in the investigation of looted coins under the Nazi regime). But perhaps that information did not come from Salton, and perhaps Kolbe and Fanning were confusing two individuals for one, or perhaps they were perpetuating an error from a prior source.

Biographically, I didn't think there was anything mutually inconsistent in the biographies -- a numismatic catalog publisher and a museum photographer are at least occupations with overlapping skills (especially at that time), and the coin firm may not have been terribly active during the war years, so one might expect he would be engaged in another profession. But, as you say, it is a common name so it is important to narrow it down. (Especially if, as your linked post indicates, Kress himself was punished for trying to help Heinrich.)

For now, I'm about to edit it in a note regarding this issue, pointing also to your comment, and update as I check sources.

 

I believe you are right. Karl Kress numismatist was born in 1892, but the one captured by the MFAA was reportedly born 1900. So I'm going to assume that Kolbe / Fanning is in error (I'll probably follow up by sending them an email so they know for future reference, and so they can reply if they have any other info).

Thanks for bringing that to my attention! Updating my post and notes files momentarily...

 

I also assume that Kolbe&Fanning are mistaken here, probably because of the identical name. Apart from the different dates of birth, I assume that it would be mentioned in Karl Kress' interrogation report had he also run a mid-scale publishing house in Munich and owned a numismatic auction house in the 1930s/40s.

Also, if they had been the same person, Karl Kress would have built his Munich publishing house while still serving in the Weimar Republic army (1918–1930) and working as a photographer at Kassel (1931–1939). During WW2, he would have been in the army and looted art for the Nazis all around Europe, run the publishing house, and organized a total of nine major numismatic auctions between 1939 and 1943. That appears to be far too much activity for a single person...

 

I just emailed to Kolbe & Fanning, by the way, so they won't reproduce that description in their future catalogs, and may be able to point me to others who thought they were the same (can't remember where else, but I think I saw one other person make the same mistake).

Very good background about Kress in your post, by the way. (And I see @DonnaML also included useful background on Kress in her original post about the Arcadius.) All those are linked/quoted in my notes now! That must've taken a lot of research, since I haven't found a whole lot about him that's readily accessible (in English or German, which I don't really even read!).

And those are very fascinating coins from AMCC Auction 2. I only noticed them after the auction. The history of the ancient coin trade around WWII is one of my minor areas of interest, so I really wished I'd bid (interesting that another Curtis (@Curtisimo ) was also bidding)!

Of course, I'd be concerned too and want to investigate the source, but the best thing to do about it is to share the coins publicly alongside the provenance (as you did, and as the auction catalog did), so that if they can be traced to looted property, people can find them. (If someone tracked my coins down that way, I think I'd be very excited -- though, it might sting a bit if it was something very expensive or a coin I was attached to for many years!) I do have one coin I knew to be ex-Kress, but 1961. It seemed extremely difficult to actually identify specific looted coins and books, though I gave it a good faith attmept.

There are some amazing accounts of Mark Salton-Schlessinger (he changed his name to Salton on moving to the US, but then started using Salton-Schlessinger at times) tracking down coins and books that had been seized from his father, Felix Schlessinger. Apparently he spent decades at it. I assume many were included in the Stack's sale of his collection a few months ago, based on the provenances given. (Another sale of his ancient coin collection was announced, which I was happy about, since I got none of his coin collection so far, just his library.)

 

I just saw this discussion, and, as noted, a lot of this is discussed in my original thread about my Arcadius solidus. See https://www.cointalk.com/threads/my-first-ancient-gold-coin-a-solidus-of-arcadius.378975/:

"The only thing that made me feel a bit uneasy was the fact that Karl Kreß (Kress) was the coin's dealer in 1960. See this Dec. 2019 post by @Curtisimo (at https://www.cointalk.com/threads/curtisimo’s-top-10-of-2019.352186/#post-3955142):

'Otto Helbing Nachf. was a prominent Jewish family run auction house based in Munich which was founded in 1878. In the mid 1930s the family was forced to flee Germany and the firm was seized by the Nazis and transferred to Karl Kress at some point before 1938 (a process often referred to as aryanizing). Until 1944 Kress continued to use the Otto Helbing name. A look through restitution claim records show that some of these auctions were populated with material seized by the SS and sold through the Kress-run auction house. This coin was part of an auction in November 1942 held under these circumstances. My research leads me to believe that this coin was unsold in that sale and that it and the other unsold lots were retained by Karl Kress for the rest of his life. Kress died in 1969 but his firm continued until 1986. These WWII era unsold lots as well as the rest of the Karl Kress inventory were purchased as a group and sold by Gorney & Mosch at auction in 2016.'

A couple of further notes based on my own brief research: At the time the Otto Helbing firm was "Aryanized" -- which, as I know from my own family's experience, usually meant a forced sale at an extortionately low price that sometimes wasn't even paid -- it was "owned by Heinrich Hirsch, father of Gerhard Hirsch, who founded the still active Münzhandlung Gerhard Hirsch Nachf."
See The E-Sylum for 9/11/2016 at the Newman Numismatic Portal (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/periodical/512844). We don't know exactly why Karl Kreß was given the opportunity to acquire the firm and its inventory -- although of necessity he must have been a Nazi party member himself or otherwise a supporter of the regime -- but it seems that he was not even a numismatist by trade before the sale. See https://nnp.wustl.edu/Library/AdvancedSearch?page=3&fullsearchterm=hess leu&contenttype=Periodical for an abstract of the article published after his death in Coin World [02/11/1970] (pg. 65), stating that "Mr Kress had been a printer by trade then had purchased the Munich numismatic firm of Otto Helbing." See also https://www.amazon.com/Messen-Prüfen-Gewinden-Werkstattbücher-German/dp/3662406136/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&qid=1618339690&refinements=p_27:Karl+Kress&s=books&sr=1-2, a link to a copy on Amazon, with a photo of the cover, of Karl Kress's 1938 book Messen und Prüfen von Gewinden (Werkstattbücher, 65) (in translation, "Measuring and testing threads (workshop books, 65)" -- nothing to do with numismatics, I think).

What gives me comfort, though, and leads me to feel that there's nothing "tainted" about the coin (at least, not directly), is that I think it's extremely unlikely that any coin that was in the Otto Helbing inventory at the time Kress acquired the firm circa 1938 was still in inventory in 1960. Especially a gold solidus. Of course it's true that Kress benefited financially from the sale of this very coin, but there's nothing I can do about that. And better that the coin is in my hands now than in his."

See also the various responses in that thread on the subject.

It is extremely clear to me that the Karl Kreß who acquired the Otto Helbing firm -- certainly under dubious circumstances -- was not the same person as the Nazi photographer and POW Karl Kress. See the interrogation report regarding the latter, with biographical information, at https://www.dfs.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2019/02/karl_kress.pdf, as well as the biographical information at https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2014/08/21/karl-kress/:

"Kress was born February 6, 1900 at Dotzheim, Kreis Wiesbaden. He served in the German Army from the end of World War I until June 1930, when he became technical assistant to the State Art Collections at Kassel. There his primary duty was that of a photographer. In 1939 Kress was called to active duty with the Luftwaffe as photographer, and assigned to a photographic unit, with the rank of Feldwebel (Staff Sergeant). The unit was transferred to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in the western suburbs of Paris, in June 1940.

In November 1940 Kress was ordered by his commanding officer to proceed to Paris with three assistants for the purpose of photographing art objects. These art objects he learned had been confiscated by the ERR and were stored near the Louvre at the Jeu de Paume a museum in the Jardins des Tuileries. The ERR, formed under the direction of Alfred Rosenberg, had originally as its primary function the collection of political material in the occupied countries, for exploitation in the “struggle against Jewry and Freemasonry.” The Western Office (Amt Westen) of the Rosenberg-headed Ministry for Occupied Eastern Territories became operational in July 1940, with headquarters in Paris. Amt Westen was directed at the outset by Stabsfuehrer Dr. Georg Ebert, assisted by Baron Kurt von Behr.

Starting in October 1940, on Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering’s instigation, the ERR began taking over almost all of the seized art in France—not only paintings and works on paper, but also antique furniture, carpets, tapestries, objects d’art, and antiquities. Goering was anxious to enrich his own collections, and could offer Luftwaffe and other assistance for seizure, processing arrangements, and transport, while he manipulated further ERR art-looting operations in France. The initial collections brought to the German Embassy in Paris were moved first to several rooms in the Louvre, but space there was too limited. By the end of October, the ERR set up shop for processing at the Jeu de Paume. On November 5, a Goering order issued in Paris extended formally the authority of the ERR to include the confiscation of “ownerless” Jewish art collections, and, thereby altered the emphasis of the ERR mission so as to make such activity its primary function.

When Kress reported to the Jeu de Paume the museum was already full of art objects. There he met Drs. Gunther Schiedlausky, Hans Ulrich Wirth, and Heinrich Jerchel. They worked for the Paris Dienststelle of Amt Westen. This office, in addition to a staff of photographers, consisted of a small group of professional art historians who worked as a unit designated as the Arbeitsgruppe Louvre. The function of this unit was the methodical preparation for transport to Germany of all works of art received through confiscation, and a comprehensive inventory thereof. At the outset, this group comprised Drs. Schiedlausky, Hans Ulrich Wirth, W. Esser, Heinrich Jerchel, Friedrich Franz Kuntze, and several research assistants. Schiedlausky, was a leading member of the ERR art staff from November 1940 to December 1941, and chief custodian of the German deposits of the ERR from July 1942 until April 1945. Wirth, joined the Paris art staff of the ERR in November 1940 as one of the assistants to Schiedlausky. He was responsible for preparing inventories of important collections which had just been confiscated. Jerchel, who originally served with the Kunstschutz (the Wehrmacht’s Art Protection Office), was transferred to the ERR in November 1940 with duties similar to that of Wirth. Once situated at the Jeu de Paume, Kress was assigned the task of photographing a large number of paintings that had been confiscated by the ERR.

Kress’ first photographic assignment was to take about forty photographs for Dr. Hermann Bunjes, who was not connected with the ERR. Bunges, who wore several hats while in Paris, including being the Director of the German Art Historical Institute, a member of the Kunstschutz, and an advisor to Goering, later told Kress the art works he had photographed had been flown to Germany and given to Adolf Hitler.

Von Behr quickly recognized Kress’ ability as a professional art photographer, and sought to have him transferred to the ERR. Von Behr was the Deputy Director of Amt Westen, Director of the Paris ERR Kunststab, and subsequently Director of Dienststelle Westen and the confiscated furniture operation, the Möbel-Aktion (M-Action). As part of the Kress transfer process, in 1941 he was ordered to the Cultural Photographic Unit in the Air Ministry, and then transferred to the ERR. He was returned to Paris from Berlin, and put to work in the Jeu de Paume. At this time, Kress met and worked under Drs. Bruno Lohse and Friedrich Franz Kuntze. Lohse was a member of the Paris art staff from February 1941, subsequently its Deputy Director, and special art representative of Goering in the ERR. Kuntze, both a painter and art historian by profession, was assigned to duty with the ERR in Paris in February 1941. He arrived simultaneously with Lohse and occupied a position entailing research and the compiling of inventories, but appears to have been somewhat more independent than the other research assistants in that he occasionally proposed works of art for exchange and for acquisition by Goering.

In conformity with Adolf Hitler’s order of November 18, 1940, the greater part of the material confiscated by the ERR was sent to Germany for safekeeping and for Hitler’s ultimate disposition. The first shipment of ERR material from France to Germany took place in April 1941. Between that date and July 1944, 29 shipments were sent into the Reich. The shipments comprised 138 freight carloads, containing 4,174 cases of work destined for six separate protected deposits. These deposits were: Schloss Neuschwanstein (Kreis Füssen); Schloss Chiemsee (Herreninsel, Kreis Traunstein); Cloister Buxheim (Kreis Memmingen); Schloss Kogl (St. Georgen/ Kreis Vöcklabruck); Schloss Seisenegg (Kreis Amstetten); and, Schloss Nickolsburg (Kreis Nickolsburg).

During the summer of 1941, just months after the German invasion and occupation of Greece, Kress was ordered to Salonika to accompany Professor Franz Dölger on an expedition to Mount Athos. Dölger, a distinguished professor of Byzantine studies at the University of Munich since 1931, was to focus on historical and theological issues. His expedition was officially sponsored by Alfred Rosenberg in his capacity as Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, and was supported by the Wehrmacht. Kress was to later recall that the purpose of the expedition from his perspective was to make cultural propaganda photographs. Kress spent six months on the project and subsequently Dölger’s account of his visit to Mount Athos was printed in the book Mönchsland Athos (Munich: 1943). After completing this mission, Kress returned to Paris in 1942 to resume work under Lohse.

When Kress returned to Paris he found that Luftwaffe corporal Heinz Simokat had been installed by Lohse as the ERR’s chief photographer. Thus with little photographic work to do, Kress set himself the task of compiling an orderly set of negatives, inasmuch as he had found the files in a state of disorder on his return from Greece. He also began spending more time in the photographic section of the Amt Rosenberg (Rosenberg’s headquarters) in Berlin than with the ERR in Paris.

At some point, in 1943 or 1944, Simokat, at his own request, was returned to active military duty, and Rudolf Scholz became the leading ERR photographer, responsible to art historian Dr. Walter Borchers (Obergefreiter in the Luftwaffe) who had become head of the Arbeitsgruppe Louvre. Rudolf was a nephew of Dr. Robert Scholz – Bereichsleiter (Divisional Director) of the Rosenberg Amt Bildende Kunst (Office for Pictorial Arts), Berlin; and, responsible for the professional conduct of the Paris art staff of the ERR.

Kress, at some point in 1943, was sent to Riga and Kiev on short photographic missions, and also worked in the ERR deposits at Neuchwanstein/Fussen and Chiemsee, in Bavaria.

Meanwhile, ERR shipments continued to be sent to the ERR deposits in Germany and Austria through February 1944, at which time the Reichschancellery (because of the increasing danger from air raids) ordered the major deposits evacuated and their contents brought to Alt Aussee, Austria, for storage in the salt mine there.

Shortly before the heavy air raids on Berlin began in 1944, Kress was given the responsibility of assembling the entire ERR file of photographic negatives and moving it to Neuchwanstein/Fussen for safekeeping. Subsequently, he was ordered to move the entire file to the ERR center at Schloss Kogl/St. Georgen. Shortly before the American entry into the area, the files were once again moved from Kogl to Fussen. The final transfer of material was undertaken by Lohse, acting under Scholz’s orders.

During 1944 Kress made a number of short trips to Paris in order to bring photographic material from the Luftwaffe unit station to Germany. In addition, he was given the assignment by Robert Scholz of bringing Baron von Behr’s Dienststelle Westen household effects (china, linen, silver, etc) confiscated in the M-Action, to Germany for the use by ERR personnel.

As late as the night of May 3-4, 1945 Scholz and Kress were at Schloss Kogl. Scholz then sent Kress to the Alt Altssee deposit very shortly before U.S. troops occupied the area. When the troops captured the mine at Alt Aussee on May 8, Kress, then a Stabsfeldwebel (Master Sergeant) was made a prisoner of war."

The Karl Kress who was in the Weimar army until 1930 and then in Kassel was not the same Karl Kreß who printed this Otto Helbing catalog in Munich in 1924 (see bottom left), and remained in Munich through the 1930s!



Nor was the Mr. Nazi photographer Karl Kress who was running around all over Europe through 1944 (Greece, Paris, Berlin, etc.) the same one who ran a coin company in Munich at exactly the same time (still using the Helbing name), as with this November 1942 auction:



By 1944, he had moved his company to Salzburg:



Forget the different birth dates; the idea that they were the same person is ludicrous for innumerable other reasons.

I do find it curious that Kreß, by now back in Munich, was still using the Otto Helbing name at the time of the 1960 auction at which my Arcadius solidus was sold -- long after the rights to and ownership of the Otto Helbing firm were apparently returned to the Hirsch family, certainly no later than the 1950s:



Finally, here is a link to a list of Otto Helbing auctions from 1888-1942 at rnumis.com: https://www.rnumis.com/house_auctions.php?house=HLBG&db_minyr=1844&db_maxyr=2022&dbcountry=All Countries. The last one without the Kress name on it is from 1935, and the first one produced by Kress was in 1939. 1936-1938 are missing. The 1944 Kress auction in Salzburg is indexed separately, rather than under the Helbing name.

 

One of my more important archaic owls was purchased from Dr. Busso Peus Nachfolger back in 2020: