Solothurn 1813 32 franken
This specimen was lot 2081 in Sincona sale 25 (Zürich, October 2015), where it sold for 220,000 CHF (about US$271,749 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"32 Franken (double dublo[ne]) 1813. Crowned cantonal arms in a small wreath of laurel and palm branches. Rev. Standing warrior with shield and halberd, in the truncation the value. Leaf edge. Of highest rarity. Good extremely fine. Edge fault and minimally cleaned.
This coin is one of the rarest of all cantonal gold coins. Up to today, only three specimens are known. Nr. 1 in the Swiss National Museum, Nr. 2 in the Solothurn Museum und Nr. 3 our specimen. The coin shows minimal traces of overstriking, what one leads to assume that - similar to coins of Bern - French double louis d'ors were used as planchets. One can also assume that no special edge dies were used for this microscopically small mintage. This was also not necessary as the French coins already had a leaf edge. One used a minting ring with no decoration. This led to the fact that on certain places the leaf edge is very weak and hard to see, as the leaf edge of the French coin was pressed against the die ring. It is one of the most sought-after cantonal gold coins and it is the first time that this denomination of Solothurn is ever offered in an auction."
Most issues of this canton are rare with the exception of some billon five rappen (KM 78) and one batzen (KM 67). At this time, 10 rappen = one batzen and 10 batzen = one frank and 4 franken = one thaler.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 15.28 g, 0.900 fine gold, this specimen 15.40 g.
Catalog reference: Simmen 118. D.T. 120a (Nachtrag), HMZ 2-852a (dieses Exemplar). Fr-394 (2 known), KM 76.
- 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.
- [1]Richter, Jürg, Ruedi Kunzmann and Arne Kirsch, Numismatic Rarities, Auction 25, Zürich: SINCONA AG, 2015.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
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