- 15,000 rare coins from over 100 regions unearthed after being hidden from Nazis.
- Collection includes massive 348.5-gram gold coin worth $1.35 million USD.
- First auction of historic collection scheduled for May 2025.
Sometimes treasures are hiding in plain sight — like the guy who accidentally threw $750 million USD worth of Bitcoin into the trash or the lucky person who bought a $50 USD garage sale painting, only to find out it was worth $15 million USD. Now, another such discovery is making headlines: the ‘Traveller Collection,’ which is a stash of rare coins that were buried underground for over 50 years and are finally seeing the light of day through an auction.
This numismatic goldmine is worth more than $100 million USD (~$160 million AUD) and is the most valuable collection ever to be put up for auction. The first sale is schedule for May 20, 2025 and will be conducted by Numismatica Ars Classica (NAC), marking a historic moment in the world of high-stakes coin collecting.
A Collection Born from Crisis and Adventure
The story behind the Traveller Collection seems straight out of a movie. It all began in the aftermath of the 1929 Wall Street Crash, when a European collector and his wife went on an ambitious quest to get the rarest, most historically significant coins across the Americas and Europe. Piece by piece, they built an extraordinary portfolio and carefully documented each acquisition along the way which has provided an invaluable record of each piece’s origin.
Then came World War II. As the Nazis advanced across Europe, the collector faced a painful decision. Rather than risk losing his life’s work, he chose to bury the entire collection underground and sealed the coins in cigar boxes and aluminium containers before vanishing into history.
For over five decades, the collection remained untouched but recently the heirs of the original collector retrieved the long-lost treasure and brought one of the greatest numismatic stories ever told full circle. Arturo Russo, director of NAC, stated about the coins:
“This is the most valuable numismatic collection ever to come to auction in its entirety. The vast range and superb quality of the coins offered, the sheer number of great rarities, and the fascinating story of the collection’s formation will make these sales a landmark in the history of numismatics.”
An Unprecedented Numismatic Legacy
The collection includes many significant coins including a 100 Ducat Gold Coin of Ferdinand III of Habsburg (1629), which weighs 348.5 grams of fine gold, representing one of the largest European gold coins ever made and is expected to sell for around $1.35 million USD. Another standout piece of the collection is the 70 Ducat Coin of Polish King Sigismund III (1621), which tips the scales at 243 grams and is estimated to have a worth of $471,700 USD.
Many of these coins haven’t been available for purchase in over 80 years and some have never even been documented in numismatic records. Because of this, the first auction in May will be monumental and will focus on British machine-struck coins from Charles II to George VI, with a full display at NAC’s London office throughout April.
The three-year auction series is set to be a surreal moment for both historians and collectors because these coins are more than a collection of gold and silver — they represent a story and an unbreakable connection to the past.
