For the next blog preview of the Stack’s Bowers Galleries official auction
of the August ANA World’s Fair of Money, we continue with more European gold,
following last week’s entry: Czechoslovakia 1934 10 Dukaten. This week’s highlight hails from
Switzerland and features a lovely rendition of Helvetia, the female national personification
of Switzerland. She is named after the Helvetii, the Gaulish tribe that
inhabited modern Swiss lands at the time before Roman conquest, similar to
Britannia and Germania. Helvetia is commonly depicted wearing or sometimes
holding a wreath, which represents confederation. The obverse features a left
facing head of Helvetia, with mountainous peaks behind her. The reverse displays
the Swiss cross radiate at top, the denomination and date in the middle of the
design and a sprig of alpine roses at the lower portion. This rare single year
issue had a mintage of just 5,000 pieces and few remain in full gem state like
this example. The brilliant luster, sharp strike and glistening satiny surfaces
provide exceptional eye appeal. This is certainly a coin to keep an eye out for
to complete a collection of world gold.
We are now accepting consignments of world and ancient coins for our
August 2016 ANA Auction as well as Chinese and other Asian coins and currency
for our August 2016 Hong Kong Showcase Auction. Time is running short, so if
you are interested in consigning your coins and paper currency (whether a whole
collection or a single rarity) be sure to contact one of our consignment
directors.
