Ulrich Werz (January 15, 1964 – June 14, 2023)

Ulrich Werz, who died on 14th June 2023 at the age of 59, was well known in Germany and beyond for his work on Roman countermarks, and later, for his analyses of coin finds and contributions to the new research area of digital numismatics. Born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1964, he studied Classical Archaeology, Ancient History and Archaeology of Asia Minor at the Georg August University in Göttingen. He then attended the Goethe Universität in Frankfurt am Main where he turned to numismatics, writing a masters’ thesis on depictions of Aphrodite on Roman Provincial coins in Asia Minor. From 1996 Werz worked on his doctoral study concerning the countermarks on Roman bronze coins of the early Roman Empire in the Rhine area under the supervision of Hans-Markus von Kaenel. The resulting dissertation, Gegenstempel auf Aesprägungen der frühen römischen Kaiserzeit im Rheingebiet: Grundlagen, Systematik, Typologie was published in Winterthur in 2009 and included more than 12,100 countermarks. Werz travelled widely to collect material for his study and made thousands of plaster casts.