The second instalment of the Traveller Collection sales saw a 1629 Bohemian coin sell for nearly £2 million in Geneva yesterday, November 6.
The 100-ducat coin was a centrepiece in the sale at Numismatica Ars Classica (NAC) of a collection that was hidden to keep it safe from the Nazi domination of Europe in World War II.
The collection’s owner built it in the wake of the Wall Street Crash, seeking alternative investments as the stock market implosion plunged the world into a Great Depression that seemed to have no end.
He travelled Europe seeking out only the best quality coins and keeping meticulous records as he bought and stored his booty. As Nazi Germany began a murderous rampage of invasions across the continent from 1939, the collection was buried for safety, and only resurfaced in the 1990s when its creator willed it to his family.
Its sale is said to be the most significant single coin collection sale in history.
Ferdinand III as Holy Roman Emperor. A member of the Hapsburg Family, he collected thrones and dukedoms very naturally, and had the resources to throw huge amounts of gold around.
The 100-ducat piece was struck for the then King Ferdinand III of Bohemia. It was born in a previous era of European bloodshed, the Thirty Years War.
As religious divides erupted into bloody and atrocity-filled conflict across Germany, Ferdinand was using his cash to promote his rule. These coins were far too big for daily use – it would have been like carrying a £30,000 note around – and were used as diplomatic gifts by Ferdinand.
By 1637 Ferdinand’s 348.5-gram golden gifts were bearing fruit as he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
The coin went into the sale asking an opening bid of £950,000 and a low estimate of £1.1 million.
It sold for £1.8 million or $2.4 million.
Earlier this year, a similar 100-ducat coin made for Sigismund III of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was auctioned for $2.3 million (£1.7 million) in Oslo.
