Denmark 1648 4 ducats Fr-72

Stack's Bowers sale of the L. E. Bruun Collection, lot 1056

This specimen was lot 1056 in Stack's Bowers sale of the L. E. Bruun Collection (Copenhagen, September 2024), where it sold for €84,000 (about US$93,089 including buyer's fees). The catalog description^[1] noted,

"A Considered to be Unique and Hefty Klippe of Frederik III, DENMARK. Largesse 4 Ducats Klippe, 1648. Copenhagen Mint. Frederik III. NGC AU Details--Obverse Damage. Mintmaster: Henrik Köhler. Thought to be UNIQUE with a mintage of only 5 pieces. Apart from a scratch in the right obverse field, a splendid example of this imposing gold piece.
For the celebration of the king's coronation on the 23rd of November a series of unusual coins were minted on square flans to be used as largesse money. Silver coins with a total value of 1000 Rigsdalers were minted in denominations of 1/4, 1/6 and 1/12 Speciedaler to be thrown to the crowd in the streets of Copenhagen. Gold coins were also minted as Ducats and ½ Ducats that could have been used in the same way, whereas five sets of 5, 4, 3 and 2 Ducats were minted for the personal use of the king and the chancellor, Corfitz Ulfeldt. The 5, 4 and 3 Ducats are now all considered unique. The reverse has been interpreted either as an urn spewing ashes or as an incense burner. On the receptacle is written, TANDEM, the Latin word for "finally" which might refer to the fact that Christian IV, after nearly 60 years on the throne, had finally gone to meet his maker. It has been speculated that the reason for making the coins square was so they would not roll down the open sewers."

While flinging largesse to the crowd was a common practice of many monarchs, only in Scandinavia were special coins struck for the purpose.

Recorded mintage: unknown.

Specification: 14 g, 0.986 fine gold, this specimen 13.69 g.

Catalog reference: Fr-72; KM-166; Hede-3; Sieg-129; Schou-23; Aagaard-2.1; Bruun-5979.

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 1648 4 ducats Fr-72

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