A 1629 Bohemian 100-ducat coin with a pre-sale estimate of £1.9 million is expected to be the big star of the next sale from the historic Traveller Collection on November 6 in Zurich, Switzerland.
The Traveller Collection was assembled after the 1929 Wall Street Crash. In search of alternative investments, its creator travelled widely to buy what may be the most significant coin collection ever sold.
As the Nazis plunged Europe into darkness, the collection was hidden. It emerged into family ownership in the 1990s before its sale was announced last year by Numismatica Ars Classica.
This coin is a 100 ducat piece struck in 1629 for King Ferdinand III of Bohemia.
The Sack of Magdeburg in 1631 was perhaps the worst atrocity of the Thirty Years War, during which Ferdinand III was investing money in diplomacy with his giant gold coins.
If it surpasses its top estimate of CHF2 million (about £1.87 million or $2.5 million) it will become the most valuable European gold coin ever sold at auction. Earlier this year, a 1621 100 ducat coin for Sigismund III of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth sold for $2.28 million (around £1.7 million) in Oslo.
This piece contains a lot of gold, weighing in at 348.5 grams. It is far too large for daily use, and was minted as a show of power and wealth, with a bullion value of around £30,000 in today’s gold prices.
The man wielding that power was Ferdinand III. A member of the dynastic Habsburg family, he was Archduke of Austria and King of Hungary and Croatia from 1625. He became King of Bohemia in 1627, and ten years later was Holy Roman Emperor.
This coin would have been sent to a German court during the Thirty Years’ War, the bloody and complex series of conflicts that followed the Reformation’s foundation of protestant churches in opposition to Catholic hegemony.
While this is the most valuable coin by estimate in the November 6 sale at Numismatica Ars Classica it is not the only golden giant. A 1621 Polish 100 ducat piece is expected to realise around £330,000.
This sale carries overall estimates of nearly £5 million. The first of the Traveller auctions realised £5.7 million at auction, more than twice its pre-sale predictions.
