A tycoon collector forbade anyone from selling his coins for 100 years. A century on, the first set just fetched $16.5M

By Jacqui Palumbo, CNN

(CNN) — Following the death of the Danish butter magnate Lars Emil Bruun in 1923, his will had a curious order: His vast accumulation of coins, notes and medals, amassed over more than six decades, should be held as an emergency reserve for Denmark’s national collection in case it were ever destroyed. After a century, if all was well, his own cache could finally be sold to benefit his descendants.

On Tuesday, just under a year since the 100-year-old order expired, the first set of coins from Bruun’s personal 20,000-piece collection went up for auction in Copenhagen. After nearly eight hours of bidding, the opening 286 lots sold for a combined 14.82 million euros ($16.5 million).

It will take several more sales to empty Bruun’s coffers, but once completed, it will be the most expensive international coin collection ever sold, according to Stack’s Bowers, the rare coin dealer and auction house hosting the sales. The L.E. Bruun Collection was insured for 500 million Danish kroner, or around $72.5 million.

The auction house described it as the most valuable collection of world coins to ever come to market. In a press release following Tuesday’s auction, Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ president, Brian Kendrella, described the first sale as “truly a landmark event for the world coin market.”

Where the numismatist’s collection has resided over the past century had been something of a mystery, its location known to few.But Bruun believed that hiding his treasure was for a noble cause; following the destructionhe saw of World War I, he feared the Royal Danish Coin and Medal Collection could one day face bombing or looting, according to the auction house.

Bruun began collecting currency as a child in 1859, when his uncle died and named him among the recipients of some of his coins, according to the sales catalog. The son of innkeepers and landowners, he learned in his 20sthat his family inheritance had been squandered and he was saddled in debt. He began his own business in butter with a loan, eventually earning a fortune from sales and exports. With his wealth, he became a prolific coin collector, and was a founding member of the Danish Numismatic Society in 1885.

“The good thing about collecting coins is that when you are upset about something or you feel unsettled, then you go and look at your coins, and then you calm down by studying them again and again pondering the many unsolved problems they present,” he once told a Danish magazine, per the catalog. “People who are exclusively devoted to their business make a great mistake. I, for one, could never imagine thinking about nothing but butter until my dying days.”

Tuesday’s sale included gold and silver coins from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, dated from the late 15th century to the latter years of Bruun’s life. The star lot was one of Scandinavia’s oldest gold coins, according to the catalog a noble of King Hans dated from 1496. The coin smashed auction house estimates to fetch 1.2 million euros ($1.34 million), setting a new world record for a Scandinavian coin at auction, Stack’s Bowers Galleries said.

“Hands-down my favorite piece in the sale is the 1496 gold noble of King Hans, who was king of Denmark and Norway under the Kalmar Union, as well as Sweden for a brief time,” said Matt Orsini, director of world and ancient numismatics at Stack’s Bowers Galleries, in a press statement prior to the first auction. “It is important on so many levels — it’s the very first gold coin struck by Denmark, it’s the very first dated coin struck by the Danish kingdom, and it’s unique in private hands.”

Over the past few months, the coins toured different fairs and exhibited at Stack’s Bowers’ galleries. They were also put on display in Copenhagen just before the sale.

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CNN’s Oscar Holland contributed to this report.