The “Traveller Collection” of coins was buried as the Nazis conquered Europe. It stayed underground for 50 years. Now its sale in May for a potential $100 million could set a single-collection record.
The collection will be sold by Numismatica Ars Classica in sales opening in Zurich on May 20.
It is an extraordinary collection of more than 15,000 coins from 100 countries that ranges through history.
Arturo Russo, director of Numismatica Ars Classica, said: “The vast range and superb quality of the coins offered, the sheer number of great rarities and the fascinating story of the collection’s formation will make these sales a landmark in the history of numismatics.”
The collection was assembled in response to the Wall Street Crash. Its builder travelled widely buying fine coins and keeping a detailed archive of their buys.
This George III five guinea piece could be the most valuable British coin in the sales. Image courtesy of Numismatica Ars Classica.
As the Nazis plunged Europe into darkness, the coins were buried for safety. The collector told only his wife where they were. She kept the secret until the 1990s when she told the collector’s descendants the secret location. The full collection, stored in aluminium boxes, was dug up and moved to conventional secure storage.
The scope of the collection is so huge that it will attract specialist buyers of all sorts. It’s also of extremely high quality and will bring to market items that have never been sold at public auction.
A 1629 100 ducats coin from Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia minted during Ferdinand III’s reign is predicted to realise over £1 million.
It is very old and very rare and at 348.5g one of the largest gold coins ever struck in Europe.
British collectors will also be queuing up for the Zurich sale.
David Guest, director of David Guest Numismatics, who is consulting on the sale, said: “When it came to cataloguing the British coins from the Traveller Collection I had to keep pinching myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.”
Among the highlights is a George III five guinea piece from 1777 that is predicted to make around £260,000 ($340,000).
The oldest coin has survived since 296BC.
A gold stater (a fairly generic descriptor of ancient coins) from Athens is expected to sell for around £110,000.
The LE Bruun Collection of Scandinavian coins assembled by a Danish dairy magnate is currently being sold in a series of auctions. It had an insurance value of $72 million before the sales.
Either collection could soon be the most valuable ever sold at auction.
