A large gold coin, minted in 1609 for King Philip III of Spain, broke records by becoming the most valuable coin in Europe at an auction in Switzerland on Monday.
The unique piece, weighing 339 grams, was sold for 2,817,500 Swiss francs (around R$18 million). Its starting price was 2 million Swiss francs, Geneva-based auction house Numismatica Genevensis SA said, confirming that the coin set a new European record.
Known as Centen, or 100 escudos, an ancient Spanish coin, it was manufactured in the city of Segovia, in central Spain, with gold brought from the Americas, the so-called “New World”, by the conquerors.
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The coin was minted as a demonstration of wealth and royal power, equivalent to several years’ salary, and is the largest in modern European history, said Alain Baron, founder of the auction house.
Lost for several centuries, the coin reappeared in the United States around 1950, when a New York collector acquired it to sell to a Spanish buyer about a decade later. It was later auctioned off to another collector, whose identity remains confidential.
“It was truly a royal gift, a gift from one king to another king,” Baron said. “The next owner will, in a certain way, have the possibility of feeling like a king, since it was one king who handed it over to another.”
The auction house reported that there was great interest from buyers from the United States, Europe and the Middle East, who were looking for a “trophy asset”, as well as institutions.
The previous record for a European coin was a 100-ducat piece belonging to Ferdinand III of Habsburg, which sold for 1.95 million Swiss francs ($2.42 million), according to Frank Baldacci, director of Numismatica Genevensis SA.
