A coin from 1609 has set a new European record at an auction in Switzerland. “A royal gift for other kings or queens”

A large gold coin minted in 1609 for Spain's king at the time, Philip III, broke records to become the most valuable coin in Europe at an auction in Switzerland on Monday, according to Reuters.

The 339-gram piece sold for 2,817,500 Swiss francs ($3.49 million). The starting price was 2 million Swiss francs, Geneva-based auction house Numismatica Genevensis SA said, confirming that the European record for the most valuable coin had been broken.

The “centén”, or 100 escudos coin of a former Spanish currency, was made in the city of Segovia in central Spain from gold brought back from settlers who went to the Americas or “New World”.

It was made as a display of royal wealth and power, equivalent to an annual salary for many, and is the largest in modern European history, said the auction house's founder, Alain Baron.

“It was truly a royal gift”

Lost for several centuries, the coin turned up in the US around 1950, where a New York collector bought it and sold it to a Spanish buyer a decade later. Later, it was auctioned by another collector, whose identity is not public.

“It was truly a royal gift, a royal gift to other kings or queens,” Baron said. “The next owner will in a way have the opportunity to be equal to a king because it is a king who gave it to another king,” added the founder of auction house Genevensis SA.

According to the auction house, there was interest from buyers in the US, Europe and the Middle East, who were looking for a “trophy”, as well as from institutions.

The previous price record for a European coin was set by a 100-ducat coin that once belonged to Ferdinand III of Habsburg, which sold for 1.95 million Swiss francs ($2.42 million), said Frank Baldacci, director of Numismatica Genevensis SA.

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