Enquiries, and what is charged Auskünfte und Gebühren
The Institute answers about eight hundred enquiries a year, most of them by post or e-mail and most of them in ten working days. This page sets out what is answered, what is not, what it costs, and how long each kind of application takes. It exists because the same twenty questions are asked over and over, and a written answer saves both parties a letter.
1. What is answered
| Enquiry | Answer |
|---|---|
| Is a particular charter, coin or manuscript described in your indexes? | Answered from the cards, free of charge, within ten working days. Give the date, the place of issue, a name, or a reference number if you have one. The answer says whether the Institute describes the item and, where the object itself is elsewhere, which institution holds it. |
| Do you have the charters of a particular place, family or monastery? | Answered in the same way. Where the material is extensive the answer lists what there is by date and refers you to the finding aids of the institution holding the originals. |
| Can you read or date something I send you? | Images may be sent, or the object brought by appointment. The Institute will decipher and date provisionally, in writing, stating the evidence and where it is uncertain. It does not authenticate, and does not value. |
| What is the old signature on this document? | Answered from a photograph or a careful copy; the archive system it belongs to is explained. Where dialect and abbreviation are mixed the answer takes longer. |
| Do you hold a particular book or periodical? | Answered from the card catalogue by the library, extension 15. There is no electronic catalogue to search yourself. |
| Which institution should I approach for something you do not hold? | The Institute will name institutions, in words, and say what it knows of their holdings. It does not forward enquiries or act as an intermediary. |
| Will you authenticate a coin or a document, and say what it is worth? | No. The Institute does not authenticate for commercial purposes, issues no certificate that could be used in a sale, and does not value objects. It will say what region and period an object appears to belong to. |
| Will you identify a coin from a photograph? | A preliminary identification is given where the image is clear, with the limits of what can be said from a photograph stated. This is not an authentication and cannot be used as one. |
| Will you take my collection or my papers into the Institute? | The Institute neither buys nor takes deposits of objects. It will advise on the public institutions to which a collection might be offered, in words, without recommendation as to price. |
| Will you check a citation in one of your volumes? | Yes, free of charge; a photocopy of the passage is sent where the volume is to hand. |
| Will you write an expert opinion for a court or an insurer? | No. The Institute does not give expert opinions in legal or insurance proceedings. |
2. Time allowed
| Application | To be made | Answered |
|---|---|---|
| Appointment to consult material | five working days ahead | within three working days of receipt |
| Written enquiry of fact | at any time | within twenty working days since 2026, against ten before; forty days for a difficult question, with word of the delay |
| Commissioned testing | ten working days ahead | within five working days, with a date if accepted |
| Copies and image files | at any time | routine material posted within seven working days; material to be captured given a date |
| Licence to publish or exhibit | eight weeks before publication | within fifteen working days |
| Application for closed material | fifteen working days ahead | within twenty working days; longer if the director must decide |
| Proposal of an exchange of publications | at any time | within fifteen working days |
| Reporting an error or a dead link on this site | at any time | Entered in the page register on arrival; put right at the next revision |
3. Charges
| Item | Charge | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Answer to an enquiry of fact | no charge | Including a check of whether material is held, and a photocopy of a passage from one of the Institute's own volumes. |
| Photocopy, black and white | €0.25 a page | Tightly bound or brittle items are not copied. |
| Photocopy, colour | €1.20 a page | Plate material is normally supplied as an image file. |
| Image file, already captured | from €3.00 an item | Free for research and teaching within reason. |
| Image file, to be captured | from €6.00 an item | A date is given when the work is arranged. |
| Copy from microfilm | €0.40 a page | Thermal paper; copy it again if it is to last. |
| Testing, partner institutions and public museums | no charge | Under the agreement of 1985. |
| Testing, other academic institutions | from €6.00 an item | By method; the director decides on remissions. |
| Licence to publish or exhibit | free for academic use | Commercial publication is charged at the rate set by the Land. |
| Source booklets and back issues | €6.00 to €22.00 | Charged at cost; postage extra. |
| Postage and packing | at cost | Recorded delivery only for anything other than paper. |
| Copy of the statute or the data rules | €3.00 | Photocopy of the full text, posted. |
There is no charge for an answer that consists of telling somebody where to look. The Institute has no card payment facility and issues no receipt other than an invoice; institutions ordering against an order number are invoiced and may pay within thirty days.
4. How to write to us
| By post | Academic office, Wolfenbüttel Institute for Numismatics, Diplomatics, Documentary Editing and Writing Laboratory, Am Alten Archiv 7, 38300 Wolfenbüttel, Germany |
| By fax | +49 (0)5331 4807-29 |
| By telephone | +49 (0)5331 4807-0. Questions of fact on extension 16, Tuesday to Thursday between 9.15 and 15.45. |
| By e-mail |
sekretariat [at] winddew.lab — anything at all, and publications benutzung [at] winddew.lab — appointments, copies and images labor [at] winddew.lab — testing and conservation advice web [at] winddew.lab — errors and dead links on this site |
| Useful in the subject line | appointment, copies, testing, publications, data, other |
| Please do not | send an enquiry as an attachment alone with no message; send the same enquiry to several members of staff, who pass it back to the office; or ask for an answer by return, since the office is staffed by two people. |
Why there is no form on this site. A form would be collected by a script, and a script would have to be maintained. The Institute's experience with the search facility of 2006 to 2012 was that such things work while somebody is paid to look after them and then stop; and a form that silently stops delivering enquiries is worse than no form at all. Letters and telephone calls have the further advantage that they can be answered by the person who knows. For the same reason, no enquiry is lost by coming in the post: each one is entered in the register (KI-11) on the day it arrives and given a date by which it must be answered.
Compiled by the academic office from the enquiry register (KI-11) and the schedule of charges. Where a charge changes, this page is the notice of record.
Page WI-SER-03 · compiled by M. Tiedemann · read by the director's office · last modified 18 September 2026