Bye Bye King Farouk - Egypt 1955 commemorative gold coin

WillieBoyd2

This Egyptian coin commemorates the third anniversary of the revolution which ousted the infamous King Farouk.


Egypt Pound 1955 - Third anniversary of Egyptian Revolution
Gold, 23mm, 8.48gm, 0.8750 (21 carat)

This commemorative coin is about the same size as the British Sovereign.

The Egyptian Revolution began on July 23, 1952 when a group of army officers, led by Mohammed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser, staged a military coup and forced King Farouk to abdicate and leave the country.

Among other things, King Farouk left behind a fabulous coin collection which was later sold by the new government.

This coin has an image of the Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses II (BC 1279-1213) riding a chariot; the image is taken from an Abu Simbel wall relief depicting the battle of Kadesh (around BC 1274).

It is interesting that the Egyptians put one Pharaoh on the coin commemorating the removal of another, but Rameses II was one of Egypt's greatest kings and Farouk was known for hanging out in nightclubs and grabbing what he could.

King Farouk did like to drive fast and once ended up in a hospital after a crash.

Swampboy

That's a very cool coin.

Stork

I always thought it looked like a horse was about to be shot by the arrow...

Zohar

Very nice coin and write-up!

LochNESS

Farouk may not have been a great ruler, but he was a great collector in that he had good taste for rarity. Lots of wealthy collectors, very few Farouk-level pedigrees.



Of course, it's easy to buy the rarest coins when you have a nation's bank account.

7Jaguars

One of my favorite designs, & was glad to get both 5 pound coins ('55 and '57) when gold was cheap and these unloved. Many are so nicely proof like but unfortunately burdened with handling and hairline marks.

Great coin there!!

STLNATS

Originally posted by: Stork

I always thought it looked like a horse was about to be shot by the arrow...

So THAT'S what happened to king Tut! (as I understand it, current thinking is that he suffered significant trauma including a broken leg shortly before his death so maybe...)



Very nice example.

WillieBoyd2

A good biography of King Farouk is Too Rich: The High Life and Tragic Death of King Farouk by William Stadiem, published in 1991.

Farouk was an accumulator, he had collections of coins, stamps, labels steamed off of bottles, Walt Disney Uncle Scrooge comic books, naughty postcards, and many other items.

pruebas

Originally posted by: LochNESS

Farouk may not have been a great ruler, but he was a great collector in that he had good taste for rarity. Lots of wealthy collectors, very few Farouk-level pedigrees.



Of course, it's easy to buy the rarest coins when you have a nation's bank account.

Rather than Farouk having good taste in rarities, I heard more along the lines that dealers sent him rarities, especially gold, because they had no other customers for them at that time. Remember in the 2 decades after WWII, many rarities were available because Europe and Asia were in ruins and rebuilding and those coins gravitated to the US.

SYRACUSIAN

I'm still here, stop talking about me like I've left!









Besides, it is MY coins that are on FIRE, gold or silver, and not the ones minted by Mr Nasser or his successors!

lordmarcovan

What a cool old photograph!

MrOrganic

Please PM me if you are looking to sell any of your middle east coins

thank you

R

carabonnair

Originally posted by: lordmarcovan

What a cool old photograph!

I concur - and especially like the Wayte Raymond albums in the foreground. What is the black album nearest him?

LochNESS

Don't know, but man that is a lot of albums.



"The Great Accumulator" or "Acquirer" may be more accurate, then.



In any case, the "availability" and "gravitation" of fine art and rarities post WWII is not one of our finest hours, IMO. Restitution is something I firmly believe in, unless the item in question was properly sold by the rightful owner to pay (for example) transportation and/or emigration fees (ex: to escape the war). Unfortunately this task is impossible in most cases.



I hope that in the future, heaven forbid another global war should take place, with so many rare coins in slabs with bar codes, such an event will be much easier to avoid and/or repair after the fact.