Anticipation Builds For Historic L.E. Bruun Collection Auction This Week

Numismatic history is expected to be made this week as Stack's Bowers Galleries presents an unprecedented auction of Scandinavian rarities from the L.E. Bruun Collection. NGC has certified thousands of coins from the collection, including the nearly 300 that will be offered in the sale, being held at 2 p.m. CEST (8 a.m. EDT) on September 14, 2024.

Multiple bids in or near the six figures have already been made. The sale, the first in a series, includes over 30 rarities that could realize prices of more than $100,000. Learn more here.

The initial offerings are a walk through Denmark's rich numismatic history and cultural heritage, including 18 kings over a nearly 500-year time period. Learn more about the kings behind the coins here.

To give the numismatic community a valuable research tool and to showcase the Bruun Collection, NGC is building its most extensive image gallery ever. Expected to be released in the next few months, the searchable image gallery will be about double the size of the one for the Eric P. Newman Collection, which is currently the largest on NGC’s website, with 7,712 coins, tokens and medals.

"This selection of coins represents a unique opportunity in Scandinavian numismatics, one the world is likely never to see again," said Ben Wengel, NGC Senior Vice President of World Coin Grading. "NGC is proud to have certified these and thousands of other coins from this unprecedented private collection, the life's work of a man who loved his country and its fascinating numismatic heritage."

Lars Emil Bruun, a Danish entrepreneur who made his fortune in butter and real estate, amassed a collection of 20,000 pieces from Denmark and other Scandinavian countries. Keenly aware that his homeland was not invulnerable (its capital had been devasted by a fire in the 18th century and by war in the 19th century), he ordered his extraordinary collection to be set aside for a century to serve as a replacement for the one owned by the Danish government, in case it was lost or destroyed. Now that 100 years have passed since his death, this stunning collection, which is insured for more than $70 million, is being offered to the public.