The Most Valuable Post-Antique Era European Coin Ever Sold at Auction, Minted in Prague

In 1628, the young Habsburg King Ferdinand III in Prague narrowly survived a severe case of smallpox (variola) — a disease that was typically fatal in those times. To celebrate his miraculous recovery, the legendary Prague Mint — one of the most prestigious mints of the era in Europe — struck in 1629 an extraordinary series of commemorative gold coins, including the iconic 100 ducat with its breathtaking weight of 349 grams of ducat gold and diameter of 74 mm — the heaviest gold coin ever struck in Prague and throughout the entire territory of the Bohemian Crown.

The dies in Prague were masterfully engraved by Donát Starck under the direction of mint master Beneš Hübmer — on the obverse is the youthful bust of Ferdinand in armor bearing the Order of the Golden Fleece, on the reverse a crowned Bohemian lion. The auction house NAC designated this Prague masterpiece as one of the "golden giants" of early modern Europe — and rightly so.

As Bernd Kluge notes in the foreword to the book Goldgiganten (2010), 100-ducat gold strikes were minted only by Spain in 1516–1526, Polish King Sigismund III in 1621 (to commemorate victory over the Turks at Khotin), Transylvanian Prince Michael I Apafi in 1677, and the Venetian Republic in 1763–1797 — the Prague 100 ducat of Ferdinand III thus belongs to an exclusive club of only five issuers in all of European numismatic history who ever created such a monumental gold coin.

The Polish 100 ducat of Sigismund III from 1621, also weighing around 350 grams, sold for $2.16 million in 2018 — and in May 2025 another specimen reached a record 19.2 million NOK; yet the Prague 100 ducat crushingly broke that record in November 2025.

Only seven specimens of the 100 ducat are known in public collections today — two in the National Museum in Prague, three in Budapest, one in the Smithsonian Institution, and one in the Austrian National Bank. On November 6, 2025, this Prague treasure appeared as lot 1008 at NAC Auction No. 162 in Zurich — as part of the legendary Traveller Collection, a collection of more than 15,000 coins quietly assembled before World War II and subsequently hidden underground for more than 50 years to protect them from Nazi confiscation.

The gavel fell at 1,950,000 CHF, with the final price including buyer's premium reaching 2,388,750 CHF — making it the most expensive post-antique European coin ever sold at auction. At the October record gold price of $4,375 per troy ounce, the intrinsic metal value of this coin would amount to roughly 1 million CZK — the buyer thus paid 62 times the market value of the gold, a powerful testament to how historical significance and extreme rarity can far exceed the value of the precious metal.

This is precisely what makes numismatics so fascinating — a field where history, art, and investment converge in a single extraordinary object born in the heart of Prague.

Information Sources:

1. Viduna, J. — "Stodukát Ferdinanda III. za více než 62 milionů korun", Art+ / Artplus.cz, 26. 11. 2025
   🔗 artplus.cz/…/stodukat-ferdinanda-iii…
2. Numismatica Ars Classica (NAC) — Auction 162, Lot 1008: Ferdinand III, 100 Ducats 1629, The Traveller Collection, Zürich, 6. 11. 2025
   🔗 thetravellercollection.com/…/lot-1008…
3. Canadian Coin News — "100-ducat 'gold giant' tops four million", 13. 11. 2025
   🔗 canadiancoinnews.com/100-ducat-gold-giant-tops-four-million/
4. Numismatic News — "Gold Polish 100 ducat brings over $2 million" (CNG Triton XXI, Sigismund III 100 Ducats 1621), 26. 2. 2018
   🔗 numismaticnews.net/…/gold-polish-100-ducat…
5. Coinstrail.com — Donative 100 Ducats 1621, Poland, Sigismund III Vasa — auction history and price development
   🔗 coinstrail.com/…/donative-100-ducats/…
6. Aucburg.com — "Ducats — The Main Gold Coins of Europe" — overview of 100 ducat strikes in Europe
   🔗 aucburg.com/…/dukaty-glavnye-zolotye-monety-evropy
7. Kluge, B. — Goldgiganten, 2010 — cited in Art+ (see source no. 1)
8. Militký, J. — Pražská mincovna 1526–1856, 2009 — cited in Art+ (see source no. 1)
9. Novák, E. — "Dvojí pražská korunovace 1627 a pamětní ražby z roku 1629", Coins and Banknotes 4/2001 — cited in Art+ (see source no. 1)

🤖 Text prepared with the assistance of AI assistant Claude (Anthropic) based on the sources cited above and independent research.
🔗 claude.ai