In The News: Rare Collection of Ancient Coins Heads To Auction Block

mattniss

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/13/ancient-coin-collection-denmark-auction/

Rare collection of ancient coins, locked away for 100 years, heads to auction

Danish businessman Lars Emil Bruun’s collection, valued at about $72 million, is one of the most important in the world, auction house Stack’s Bowers said.

By Annabelle Timsit
May 13, 2024 at 10:54 a.m. EDT

For more than 100 years, one of the most valuable private collections of coins in the world has been kept out of the public eye. It’s been stowed away in a secret location that almost no one knows — and before that, behind the walls of a castle and in the basement of a bank.

This fall, it will go on sale — and is expected to fetch up to $72 million. It is the most valuable world coin collection to ever come to market, according to Stack’s Bowers, the American rare coin dealer and auction house handling the sale.

The collection of nearly 20,000 coins, medals, bank notes and books was assembled over the course of decades by Danish businessman and butter magnate Lars Emil Bruun.

Bruun, who died in 1923, stipulated in his will that his collection should not be sold for a century after his death. After experiencing the ravages of World War I, Bruun declared it should be kept in reserve to replace the Danish national collection should it ever be destroyed in a war or through other misfortune, such as a fire.

Since the Danish Royal Collection of Coins and Medals is still intact, Bruun’s collection will now be sold with the proceeds benefiting his heirs.

The upcoming sale has attracted outsize attention, in part because of the air of “mystery” attached to it, said Helle Horsnæs, a senior researcher at Denmark’s National Museum.

But it’s also because of the unique nature of the collection, which captures centuries of Scandinavian history, including a time when Denmark and Norway were united under one same kingdom from the 16th to the early 19th century, Horsnæs said.

Bruun was born in Denmark in 1852 and began collecting coins as a boy. He made his fortune producing butter that he exported to England and other countries in cans and later by investing in real estate. All the while, he used his wealth to acquire rare coins and other items at auctions.

In 1914, World War I broke out and tore Europe apart. Bruun, who lived through this, also had in mind the British bombing of Copenhagen in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars.

He was “concerned about the history of Denmark” and “afraid that there might be war again,” said Poul Pilgaard Johnsen, a journalist for the Danish newspaper Weekendavisen, who has covered the collection and interviewed one of Bruun’s descendants.

Bruun’s collection was initially held inside the former royal residence of Frederiksborg Castle, north of Copenhagen. But the collection was later moved to the Danish Central Bank. In 2011, it was moved again to an undisclosed location — and even those who, like Johnsen and Horsnæs, follow the collection closely say they do not know where it is or whether it is even still in Denmark.

“The whole story about the Bruun collection and his quite extraordinary will was practically unknown until now,” Horsnæs said. Though coin collectors and enthusiasts knew about it and thought of it as “a sort of fairy tale,” few in the general public in Denmark were aware it existed. Now, she said, that is about to change.

Bruun’s unusual will means that one of the world’s most important coin collections has sat largely dormant for more than a century.

“Of course, some of the descendants have tried to get a hold of some of the money” over the years, Johnsen said.

Bruun’s grandson was involved in an effort to negotiate a direct sale of the collection to the National Museum of Denmark, he said. But Danish authorities prevented the sale, saying it went against Bruun’s will, according to Johnsen. Authorities only authorized the sale of a small number of coins, Johnsen said, to help cover insurance costs.

Once the 100-year mark passed, the National Museum still had first rights to purchase certain pieces from the collection — and it selected seven rare coins, said Horsnæs, who was involved in the sale this year.

Stack’s Bowers said the sale of the collection will start in the fall and will likely take three to five years to complete. The expected value of the sale is based on the insurance valuation of the collection, which stands at about 500 million Danish kroner ($72 million), according to the auction house.

It’s not clear how many descendants will inherit the proceeds from the sale, and Stack’s Bowers said the descendants were not taking interviews.

bidask

Why would he skip a whole generation of his descendants 😄

Bailathacl

Several generations of descendants even? Perhaps he didn’t like them very much?

Either way I am curious to see what this collection consists of. I am also curious to see if the coins are all slabbed, as S/B coins tend to be, or raw. All will be revealed this fall I guess.

jt88

WOW, will be interesting to see what are those coins.

jt88

He was smart to keep them for 100 years, that will bring more interests to the coins. Also it might bring more value after 100 years.

jt88

I will keep the catalogs of those auctions.

MrEureka

@bidask said:
Why would he skip a whole generation of his descendants 😄

Presumably, for the reasons stated in the article. It would be interesting to know how much of the value of his estate was in the coin collection, and how much else there was left to the heirs at the time of his death.

I heard about this collection about 30 years ago and have been looking forward to the auction ever since. It should be a lot of fun!

tcollects

what if all the coins smell like butter?

John Conduitt

Could be anything. The title says 'ancient' but the only coin shown is not ancient or even medieval. Collectors from the 1800s had different priorities and standards, and quite often their coins have not been preserved in the way they would be now.

realeswatcher

Is $72 million in Danish coins REALLY $72 million in actual dollars???

🤔

bidask

Most of the coisn are Scandinavian