06-10-2014 – 09-10-2014
Auction sales 255-257
The Horn Collection will be sold
One of the biggest pre-war collections is the one of the Meißen-based businessman Ernst Otto Horn. Now, the first part of it will be auctioned off in Künker’s auction sale #255 – and this is not the only highlight of the October auction. Auction sale #255 consists not only of the Horn Collection but likewise of a comprehensive series Great Britain since Cromwell and a huge selection of Russian coin with several rarities. Catalog 256 with gold coins likewise presents interesting series from Italy, Great Britain and Switzerland, apart from many imperial coins with all rarities in gold. The last day of the sale is devoted to ancient coins. The connoisseur discovers any number of intriguing single items, portrait coins in conditions well above average plus gems in gold.
Auction sale 255 –Horn Collection, Part I / English Coins after 1658 / Russian Coins and Medals
The same goes for auction sale #255 that entails as many as three special collections at once. They are in a class of its own: the first one bears a name that alone makes every collector become excited. For more than 60 years now, the core of the Ernst Otto Horn Collection remains untouched. Thanks to an amicable arrangement it has now become possible to sell the Horn Collection, just as the collector himself had stipulated in his testament as early as 1945.
Auction #255 comprises almost 700 lots that make only the first part of the collection. You will find coins from all of Europe in superb conditions. Some of these are rarities, some pieces are more usual that, however, are seldom encountered on the market in this state of preservation. To name but one example: how many perfect 10 lepta pieces from 1831 (4548, EF, estimate: 250 euros) have you seen so far in your career as a collector?
The German part of the collection is just the same.
Lot 4721: HORN COLLECTION – BRUNSWICK-WOLFENBÜTTEL, FÜRSTENTUM. Henry Julius, (1589-1613). Löser worth 10 reichstaler, 1609, Zellerfeld. Dav. 27. Very rare. Very fine. Estimate: 25,000 euros.
Three outstanding items are: a löser worth 10 reichsthaler, struck by Henry Julius of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in Zellerfeld in 1609 (4724, VF, estimate: 25,000 euros), a mule of a thick triple reichsthaler of the Archbishopric Mainz from 1639 (4861, VF, estimate: 20,000 euros) and an extremely rare 1/2 reichsthaler of William of Saxe-Weimar on the taking over of the presidency of the University of Jena by Bernhard of Saxe-Jena (5092, ab. uncirculated, estimate: 5,000 euros). The last piece stands for the many Saxon coins, which Horn as a proud citizen of Meissen has in his collection.
Next is the collection Great Britain made of almost 400 lots of coins since Cromwell. Even though the many unusually well-preserved magnificent specimens, like for example the 1/2 crown from 1658 (5198, EF-uncirculated, estimate: 4,000 euros) will surely exceed the pre-sale estimate, the collector discovers quite a number of reasonably priced pieces, some of which are available for mere 20 euros!
Let us have a look at the Russian section as well, that consists of more than 400 lots including rarities in great quantities, as always.
Lot 5665: RUSSIA. Catherine I (1725-1727). Roubel 1727 (year of the die altered from 1726), St. Petersburg. Dav. 1666. Very rare. Very fine to extremely fine.
Estimate: 20,000 euros.
To name just the three most expensive items: a roubel of Peter I from 1720, minted in Moscow in the Kadashevsky Mint (5596, ab. EF, estimate: 20,000 euros), a roubel of Catherine I from 1727, minted in St. Petersburg (5665, VF-EF, estimate: 20,000 euros) plus a gold 10 roubel piece of Tsarina Elizabeth from St. Petersburg from 1756 (5711, traces of mounting, VF-EF, estimate: 20,000 euros).
Auction sale 256 – Gold Coins / German Coins after 1871
The gold coins are scheduled to be auctioned off on 9 October, 2014. Naturally, there are many more coins on offer than we could ever mention in such a preview.
Lot 6630: GREAT BRITAIN. Mary (1553-1558). Ryal (15 shillings) 1553, London. Seaby 2489. Very rare. Very fine. Estimate: 30,000 euros.
The focus in regard to the foreign countries is being laid on England – with a ryal worth 15 shillings of Catholic Mary I of England, minted in London in 1553 (6630, VF, estimate: 30,000 euros), on Italy – with a full and a half augustalis (6704, VF+, estimate: 8,000 euros, and 6705, VF-EF, estimate: 6,000 euros) as well as on Switzerland – with ample series of rare gold coins coming from Berne and Zurich, such a Zurich ducat without date (c. 1580) (6780, VF-EF, estimate: 4,000 euros).
Likewise remarkable are the rarities from overseas, for example a set of Chinese commemorative coins 1990 ‘Dragon and Phoenix’ (6858, PP, estimate: 50,000 euros), a VIP Proof set 2005 from North Korea, of which no more than 10 had been issued (6905, Proof, estimate: 5,000 euros), and a 7 tien piece of the Vietnamese emperor Tu Duc (6964, EF, estimate: 7,500 euros).
As if that were not enough already, the expert discovers a great deal of rarities amongst the coins of the German Empire as well, like – and we can only single out two cases in point here – a 10 mark piece Prussia 1878 B, J. 245 (7397, EF-uncirculated, estimate: 50,000 euros) and a 20 mark piece Württemberg 1913 (7526, Proof, estimate: 30,000 euros).
Lot 7951: GDR. 5 mark pattern 1986. Einstein Tower Potsdam. Y. 1610. Unique specimen. Mintage: only 10 specimens. Uncirculated. Estimate: 20,000 euros.
Let us conclude this part of the preview with one of the big rarities of the GDR coins, i.e. the pattern for the 5 mark piece 1986, ‘Einstein Tower Potsdam’ with a mintage of 10 specimens only (7951, uncirculated, estimate: 20,000 euros).
Auction sale 257 – Ancient Coins
Roughly 1,300 lots containing ancient coins constitute the last part of the Künker auction week. But there will be no such thing as a cool down because this catalog, too, is made up of highlights, presenting several superbly preserved gems with the ‘Collection of an Aesthetic’. The aficionado is first introduced to more than 280 lots of Celtic and Greek coins, after which numerous denarii from the Roman Republic follow which come in an extraordinarily good quality, but there are also bronze coins from Roman Imperial Times available bearing excellent portraits. Two examples might suffice: an as of Emperor Hadrian depicting the personification of the province of Egypt on its reverse (8522, EF, estimate: 4,000 euros) and a sestertius of Marcus Aurelius (8538, EF, estimate: 4,000 euros). Mention should also be made of this collection’s many coins of rarely encountered emperors whose perfect state of preservation and excellent portraits were the decisive criteria for the ‘aesthetic’ to collect them in the first place. This is evidenced, for example, by a follis of Domitius Domitianus dating from A. D. 297 (8670, EF, estimate: 4,000 euros).
In addition, there is a number of remarkable gold coins to discover, like a gold stater from Cyrene, struck between 322 and 313 B. C. (8284, VF, estimate: 5,000 euros), several gold coins from the Roman Republic among them a gold quinarius of L. Munatius Plancus for Caesar which is of utmost rarity (8839, VF, estimate: 12,500 euros) …
Lot 9099: LICINIUS II (317-324). Aureus, 321/322, Nicomedia. RIC 42. Very rare. Extremely fine. Estimate: 60,000 euros.
… and a great number of beautiful aurei from Imperial Times, like an aureus of Titus (8929, EF, estimate: 30,000 euros), of Commodus (9021, EF+, estimate: 25,000 euros) and of Licinius, respectively (9099, EF, estimate: 60,000 euros).
Despite its estimates ranging in the more modest regions, the small series of smaller denominations from the Alexandria Mint is at least as spectacular to the specialist as the gold coins. A good example is the inconspicuous dichalkon of Hadrian from the regnal year 14 (= 129/30), that is neither part of the Köln Collection nor described by Kampmann / Ganschow (8981, VF, estimate: 100 euros).
Lot 9222: THEODERICH II (453-466). Solidus in the name of Majorian, 459/461. RIC 3742 (this spec. illustrated). Extremely rare. Extremely fine. Estimate: 15,000 euros.
The auction sale is concluded by some historically highly important coins dating from the Migration Period and from Byzantium, like a solidus of Theoderich II in the name of Majorian (9222, EF, estimate: 15,000 euros).
The catalogs may be ordered at Künker, Gutenbergstraße 23, D-49 076 Osnabrück; phone +49 (0)541 / 96 20 20; telefax: +49 (0)541 / 96 20 222; or via email.
You may find all lots of the sale online on the website of Künker.
You can find an auction preview of auctions 253 and 254 here.
And the above mentioned thick triple reichsthaler of the Archbishopric Mainz is discussed in detail in this Article of the Week.