Want to Sell: 1 Million Canadian Dollars

[chrisild]

No, it's not me who wants to sell a million. The Vienna auction house "Dorotheum" plans to do so. Later this month, on 25 June, they will auction a Canadian coin with the face value of $1m ... except this is a 100 kilo gold coin (Maple Leaf) with a diameter of roughly half a meter. The Canadian mint made these record pieces in 2007. The one that you can buy in Vienna now has a precious metal value of about 3.3 million euro. According to an article (in German) that I read about the auction, the beast can be visited as from Wednesday.

Some info in English, along with a larger version of the photo below, is here:
http://www.dorotheum.com/en/presse/vorberichte-detail/die-groesste-goldmuenze-der-welt-wird-im-dorotheum-versteigert.html



Christian

[Figleaf]

The queen disapproves of the red necktie.

Peter

[chrisild]

Oh, I am so terribly sorry to hear that. The background of the story is a fairly sad one, by the way: This piece is currently owned by the AvW Group which is now insolvent. AvW had given it to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna as a loan. Last month the insolvency administrator (liquidator? not sure what the appropriate English term is) decided to cancel that loan contract and to sell the piece ...

http://www.avw.at/avw-presse/news/neuigkeiten/neuigkeiten/article/newsletter-juni-2010.html
(German; scroll down to "Erste Verwertungsmaßnahme")

Christian

[chrisild]

The auction is over; lots of people were there, but most of them were just curious from what I have read. Six bids, and the winner (Oro Direct, a precious metal dealer from Valencia in Spain) got it for the bargain price of €3.27 million. Which is basically the current gold price.

Of the five giant "100 kilo Maple Leaf 2007", one is owned by Queen Elizabeth II, two were bought by people/companies in the UAE, and the buyer and location of the fifth one is unknown. Well, rest assured it is not in my collection.

(Edit) Here is another article link, in English this time. Contrary to the Die Presse article, this one says there was only one bid. Well, there was definitely no bidding war ...

Christian

[Bimat]

Did Queen Elizabeth pay any amount for it?

Fifth owner is unknown..must be an Indian...

Aditya

[<k>]

Did Queen Elizabeth pay any amount for it?

She loves anything with her own head on it, because she gets it for free. If I was her, I'd wallpaper all the rooms of the Palace with postage stamps and get all the servants licking and sticking...

[Ukrainii Pyat]

The queen should sell hers and use the funds for her favourite charitable organisation.

[Bimat]

The queen should sell hers and use the funds for her favourite charitable organisation.

Like US/Pakistan's defense ministry?

Aditya

[quaziright]

Lots of cynics it seems. Well I liked the tour guides explanation at the RCM, they issued a single showpiece coin to celebrate their technical achievement in getting a 5 9s gold grade. Apparently that hype attracted a lot of attention and they were given 4 unsolicited serious bids for which they made the additional 4 coins.
I'm happy to take them at their face value, but yes, it is better to make fun of everything. Ok I guess I will just stop at that