Denmark 1659 10 ducats Fr-123

Stack's Bowers sale of the L. E. Bruun Collection, lot 1069

This specimen was lot 1069 in Stack's Bowers sale of the L. E. Bruun Collection (Copenhagen, September 2024), where it sold for €216,000 (about US$239,371 including buyer's fees). The catalog description^[1] noted,

"Impressive and Engaging Portugaloser with Striking Reverse Design, An Extremely Rare Offering in Gold, DENMARK. Portugaloser (10 Ducats), 1659. Copenhagen Mint. Frederik III. NGC AU-55. Mintmaster: Henrik Köhler. An absolutely amazing example of this commanding issue. Exhibiting only minimal handling, and retaining much of the stunning bright eye appeal throughout. Nearly fully detailed, signs of wear are hard to locate, and the piece certainly presents quite well.
This iconic type, of which the only other example known is in the National Museum of Denmark, was struck to commemorate the failure of the Swedish king, Carl X Gustav, to capture Copenhagen. The monogram of King Frederik III is shown above a stone with the text EBEN EZER, referring to the Old Testament (1 Samuel 7:12) in which Samuel erected a "stone of help" (Eben-ha-Ezer) between Mizpah and Jeshanah to honor the Lord for his help in securing the Israelites a victory over the Philistines. The latin inscription on the reverse, SOLI DEO GLORIA, is another tribute to God ("To God alone be the glory") while the dramatic design shows the hand of God (Manus Dei) severing the hand of the Swedish king with the sword of justice as he reaches out for the Danish crown. It has been suggested that the very rare pieces struck in gold might have been used as distinctions given to officers in the civic guard who had distinguished themselves during the siege."

Friedberg mentions a double portugaloser (20 ducats, Fr-122), a single portugaloser (10 ducats, shown here), six ducats (Fr-125), five ducats (Fr-124), four ducats (Fr-126) and three ducats (Fr-127) for 1659. All are rare and Fr-122 is unique. In their sale of an Ebenezer four ducats, Heritage commented, "Though the Swedish king, Carl X Gustav, had achieved a crushing victory against the Danes during his February 1658 invasion of the kingdom as part of the Northern Wars, leading to the Treaty of Roskilde that gave Sweden huge territorial gains, he nonetheless resolved to wipe his rival from the map of Europe. In the ensuing attack, the Swedish armies, which had never left Denmark after the peace treaty was concluded, laid siege to Copenhagen. After withstanding the siege for six months, the Danes were able to make use of the Swedes' impatience, aided by spy intel and the help of 600 Dutch marines, and ambushed the Swedish army during their hastily planned assault of Christianhavn and Slotsholmen, resulting in a crushing Swedish defeat that led to long-term peace between Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. It is quite likely that pieces such as this were minted as tokens of appreciation, distributed by the King himself to the officers involved in defending the city."

Recorded mintage: unknown.

Specification: 34.9 g, 0.979 fine gold, this specimen 34.78 g.

Catalog reference: Fr-123; KM-PnH16; Hede-99; Sieg-52; Schou-2; Aagaard-74.1 (59-E1/59-E1); Bruun-6273.

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.

Links to:

Denmark 1659 10 ducats Fr-123

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