Denmark 1664 4 ducats Fr-110
This specimen was lot 1080 in Stack's Bowers sale of the L. E. Bruun Collection (Copenhagen, September 2024), where it sold for €132,000 (about US$146,283 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"Phenomenally Designed and Artfully Rendered Quadruple Ducat, DENMARK. 4 Ducats, 1664. Copenhagen Mint. Frederik III. NGC MS-62. Mintmaster Caspar Herbach. Engraver: Johan Blum. Unique variant of the two known examples (the other being in the National Museum of Denmark). A magnificent example which has clearly never seen any circulation, and where the details are so vivid that you can almost feel the strong wind in the sails. The beautifully rendered full-rigged ship on the reverse is used to symbolize the fact that the coin itself had been struck with gold brought back from overseas.
Caspar Herbach, who went under the name "Kunst-Caspar", was a Saxon goldsmith, architect and alchemist. He was active as a mintmaster in Copenhagen for less than a year (from November 2, 1663 until his death on October 18, 1664). For the obverse he used a shelved die by Johan Stichmann. This example was formerly in the collection of merchant and shipowner Peter von Hemmert / van Hemert (1734-1810), who functioned as one of the directors in the Danish Asiatic Company from 1776 to 1783. Partly due to the general economic downturn for merchant ships following the end of the American Revolutionary War and partly due to an embezzlement scandal at the Asiatic Company, von Hemmert was financially brought to his knees. The downfall culminated in 1805 when his company was taken into bankruptcy, and only two years later, he was forced to sell his coin collection, which was astoundingly rich in large and excessively rare gold coins, at auction. Ex: Countship of Brahesminde Collection (Private Sale - 1922). Ex: Peter v. Hemmert (Copenhagen - 2/1807) Lot # 92."
Other gold issues for 1664 include a quarter ducat (Fr-103), half ducat (Fr-102), single ducat (Fr-101), double ducat (Fr-112) and five ducats (Fr-114).
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 13.96 g, 0.979 fine gold, this specimen 13.94 g.
Catalog reference: Fr-110; KM-217.2; Hede-30B; Sieg-135.2; Schou-4; Aagaard-37.1; Bruun-6412.
- 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: