CNN
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When Danish butter tycoon Lars Emil Bruun died in 1923, he left a strange instruction in his will: the vast amount of coins, banknotes, and medals he had collected over 60 years were to be stored as an emergency reserve in the Danish national collection, in case they were ever damaged. If all went well, his stash would eventually be sold off for his descendants a century later.
Next month, exactly one year after the century-old decree expired, the first set of 20,000 coins from Bruun’s personal collection will be auctioned. It will take several auctions to empty Bruun’s vault, but once complete, it will be the most expensive international coin collection ever sold, according to rare coin dealer and auction house Stacks Bowers, who are hosting the auction. The LE Bruun Collection is insured for 500 million Danish kroner (about $72.5 million). The auction house describes it as the most valuable collection of world coins ever to come on the market.
For the past century, the numismatic collector’s collection has been shrouded in mystery, with few knowing where it is, but Bruun believed he hid the treasure for a noble purpose: After the destruction he saw in World War I, Bruun feared the Royal Danish Collection of Coins and Medals would one day be bombed or looted, according to the auction house.
According to a sales catalog, Bruun began collecting numismatics as a child after his uncle died in 1859 and he was named as one of the recipients of a coin belonging to his uncle. The son of innkeepers and landowners, in his 20s he found his family’s inheritance squandered and mired in debt. He borrowed money to start a butter business, eventually making a fortune selling and exporting it. With his wealth he became a prolific coin collector and in 1885 became a founding member of the Danish Numismatic Society.
“The good thing about coin collecting is that when I feel upset or uneasy about something, I can calm myself down by looking at my coins and mulling over and over the many unresolved questions they present,” he once told a Danish magazine, according to the catalog. “Those who devote themselves solely to their work make a big mistake. I can’t imagine thinking only about butter until the day I die.”
At its opening sale on Sept. 14, Stacks Bowers will offer more than 280 lots, including Danish, Norwegian and Swedish gold and silver coins dating from the late 15th century to Bruhn’s final years, with a value of more than $10 million. The highlight is one of the oldest Scandinavian gold coins, a 1496 noble coin of King Hans, which could sell for up to 600,000 euros ($672,510), according to the catalog.
“My favorite item in this auction is the 1496 gold coin of King Hans, who was king of Denmark and Norway under the Kalmar Union and also briefly king of Sweden. It is significant in many ways: it was the first gold coin minted in Denmark, the first dated coin minted in the Kingdom of Denmark, and the only one to have ever come into private hands,” Matt Orsini, director of world and ancient numismatics at Stacks Bowers Galleries, said in a press statement.
Over the past few months, the coin has toured various fairs and been exhibited at the Stacks Bowers Gallery, and will be shown in Copenhagen shortly before the sale.
