The Traveller Collection Set for Record-Breaking Auction
The most valuable numismatic collection, once hidden from Nazis and buried for 50 years, begins a series of sales on May 20, 2025.
Numismatica Ars Classica has announced the sale of the Traveller Collection, a unique collection of coins with extraordinary provenance that is coming to the market 85 years after the last coin was purchased.
The Traveller Collection, comprising rare and highly sought-after pieces from around the world, will be auctioned over the next three years in what is believed to be the most significant sale of a single numismatic collection. The estimated insurance value of the collection exceeds $100 million, making this the most prized collection of coins sold at auction in the history of numismatics.
The coins, carefully packed and stored in cigar boxes, were buried underground in aluminum boxes for over five decades. The collection spans all geographical areas and contains exceptionally rare coins, often in a state of preservation never seen in modern times. Several types have never been offered in a public auction, highlighting their considerable rarity.
The collection was assembled in the 1930s and comprises around 15,000 coins, including numerous examples of the finest specimens in private hands. The collector began to purchase gold coins after the 1929 Wall Street Crash, soon developing a taste for coins with great historical interest, beauty, and rarity. No longer directly involved in the day-to-day running of his family business, the collector and his wife traveled extensively across Europe and North and South America over the next decade, acquiring rare and historically significant coins as they went and carefully documenting each purchase in a detailed archive.
The collector settled in a European location at the end of this extended honeymoon. When the threat of Nazi invasion became imminent, he chose to stay rather than flee the country, likely in part due to the difficulty of transporting his collection. Instead, the collector buried the coins on his property but tragically died shortly after the Nazis invaded. The coins remained buried for over 50 years before finally being retrieved by his heirs and placed in a bank vault and later presented to Numismatica Ars Classica.
Thanks to the collectors' meticulous records and the research by the team of experts assembled by NAC for this monumental cataloging endeavor, many of the coins can be traced back to the auctions of some of the greatest collections of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Highlights from the collection include some of the rarest and most prized coins by numismatic collectors. Examples include:
This is a remarkable 100 ducat gold coin of Ferdinand III of Habsburg, minted in 1629 when he was Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. This 100 ducat weighs an extraordinary 348.5 grams of fine gold, making it one of the largest denominations of European gold coins ever minted. Unseen at auction after World War II, the coin has an auction estimate of CHF 1,200,000 ($1,358,749).
This is an Australian 1-ounce Port Philip coin, a pattern coin from a series minted to commemorate the 1854 Melbourne Exhibition and later exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1855. Minted by the “Kangaroo Office,” one of the earliest mints created to establish an Australian currency, the coin fittingly depicts a kangaroo. As one of the rarest and most significant coins in Australian history, this coin has an auction estimate of CHF 250,000 ($283,072).
Pattern five guinea piece of George III dated 1777. No large gold coins were struck for currency during the reign of Britain’s longest-ruling king, and this pattern was created for a proposed five guinea piece, which never came to fruition. This is the last possible date for collectors of five guinea pieces to own, and one of only seven specimens believed to exist. The coin is estimated at CHF 300,000 ($339,687).
The first auction in this series will feature British machine-struck coins and medallions from the Traveller Collection, dating from Charles II to a specimen set created for George VI in 1937. Another key example from this auction, one of the highlights of the entire collection, is a high-grade “Una and the Lion” £5 by William Wyon, considered one of the most beautiful coins ever made. The £5 has an auction estimate of CHF 250,000 ($283,072).
Other highlights from this first auction will be announced in due course. Coins from the first auction will be on display at Numismatica Ars Classica’s London office throughout April.
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