Denmark (1604-07) 10 ducats Fr-68

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Stack's Bowers sale of the L. E. Bruun Collection, lot 1050
SB924-1050r.jpg

This specimen was lot 1050 in Stack's Bowers sale of the L. E. Bruun Collection (Copenhagen, September 2024), where it sold for €396,000 (about US$438,847 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,

"Engrossing Portugaloser with Finely Engraved and Vividly Struck Details, Among the Most Beautiful of All Danish Coins, DENMARK. Portugaloser (10 Ducats), ND (1604-1607). Copenhagen Mint. Christian IV. NGC AU-58. Mintmaster: Nicolaus Schwabe. A completely breathtaking example, lightly toned, lustrous and perfectly struck on an even flan. EXCESSIVELY RARE, with only three in private hands, this literally majestic type is easily one of the most desirable of all Danish coins. The other example in private hands struck from these dies also used to be in the Bruun collection (bought from Bille-Brahe) but was sold to Spink and Son in the auction of duplicates in 1925 (lot 2266) for the huge sum of DKK 3,000, by far the highest price of the more than 5,000 coins in the auction. When this example appeared on auction again in November 2000 (TH Auction 10, lot 1490) it set a world record for the highest price obtained for a Danish coin at auction (DKK 550,000).

The flamboyant king had a weakness for gold coins, and it therefore came naturally to him, following the Portuguese example but with an independent design, to mint this magnificent gold coin worth a whopping 10 Ducats. The obverse motif is a sweeping piece of propaganda for the young monarch who already harbored big dreams as a field commander. The armor-clad king is depicted with a marshal's baton atop a rearing horse - the classic warrior symbol. To underline the obvious fact that God was on his side, the engraver lets two angels carry the Danish crown. In the background a city prospectus can be seen.

In the personal records of the king, an entry from the 14th of February 1607 notes that Nicolaus Schwabe had delivered a number of gold coins including 10 Portugalosers "from the gold I had bought from my mother". There can therefore be little doubt, that it was in fact minted for the king's personal use."

Recorded mintage: unknown.

Specification: 34.64 g, 0.986 fine gold, this specimen 34.93 g.

Catalog reference: Fr-68; KM-FR#68; Hede-9; Sieg-150; Schou-4; Beskrivelsen 1791-1170; Bruun-5839.

Source:

  • Cuhaj, George S., and Thomas Michael, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1601-1700, 6th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2014.
  • Friedberg, Arthur L. and Ira S. Friedberg, Gold Coins of the World, From Ancient Times to the Present, 9th ed., Clifton, NJ: Coin and Currency Institute, 2017.
  • Siegs Møntcatalog 2016: Danmark med Omrader, 48 ed., Frederikssund, Siegs Forlag ApS, 2015.
  • [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio, Jeremy Bostwick and Henrik Holt Christensen, The L. E. Bruun Collection - A Corpus of Scandinavian Monetary History Part I, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2024.

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