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Memories of Dr. Eckhard Plümacher

Can a private coin collection of about 700 items be considered a work in the sense of a lifetime achie-
vement? Looking at the present catalogue containing coins selected with profound knowledge and
taste, as well as detailed and insightful descriptions, the answer is easy: Yes, of course! Dr. Eckhard
Plümacher ideally combined a passion for collecting with historical expertise, so that his collection can
stand as a numismatic work in its own right.
Eckhard Plümacher came into contact with our company at the end of the 990s. He got along
brilliantly with Dieter Raab ( 9 8- 0 ), who was his age and shared with him a similar taste for the
beautiful things in life – including ancient coins. Eckhard Plümacher became a regular participant in
our auctions; he also encouraged a school friend who lives in the Frankfurt area to attend, and soon
inspired him to collect coins as well. In this way, the two friends combined regular catch-ups with a
hobby that they shared.
In general, only a handful of coins interested him in a catalogue; in most cases, only one or two very
special specimens caught his eye. If he then lifted his bidding card, he rarely lowered it again before
the hammer blow. He could always count on appreciative glances in the hall after winning the bid,
whether from silent observers or defeated competitors. He was ready to pay high prices for the pre-
cious items he had selected, but they were never too high. He knew that quality and rarity have their
price, and was able to estimate the price reliably, perhaps with greater foresight than dealers possess in
this fast-moving business.
Eckhard Plümacher was a jovial person and a critical numismatist at the same time. Errors in the
descriptions, as they are bound to happen here and there, never escaped him – and sometimes he
would not refrain from pointing them out to the catalogue writer. The collector‘s scientific interest
when dealing with coins was always clear to see and he therefore maintained a lively exchange with
various experts, whereby the latter could always count on Plümacher‘s helpfulness and generosity. It
so happens that some coins from his collection are important stepping stones in the standard work
on Lycian coins produced in our house, and that the Institute for Classical Archaeology and Christian
Archaeology of the University of Münster benefited from a small donation.
To do justice to the work and the collector, Dr. Busso Peus Nachf. decided to publish the collection
as a separate catalogue. Our long-time customers will find that the usual terse information about the
coins has been replaced by very detailed descriptions of the designs, as well as information on dia-
meter and die axis, as well as comprehensive literature references. In these descriptions, the collector
himself, for the last time, has his say. We hope that he would have approved of the result.
In any case, the „Dr. Eckhard Plümacher Collection of Ancient coins“ is now a catalogue that il-
lustrates the richness of the ancient world in an almost exemplary manner. While in other, similarly
designed collections a preference for Greek or Roman numismatics quickly emerges, in Eckhard
Plümacher‘s case both poles are so well balanced – and additionally supplemented by a not insigni-
ficant share of „Greek Imperials“ – that we cannot say whether the collector was a „Greek“ or a
„Roman“. How could we? As a scholar of antiquity, he was too much at home in both worlds. We the-
refore hope that the present catalogue will also help the generations of collectors following Eckhard
Plümacher to familiarize themselves with the richness of the Ancient World.

Frankfurt am Main, April 0 Christoph Raab