AUSTRIA: World's biggest gold coin goes under the hammer after its owner went bankrupt

Record ID: 655701

  • Title: AUSTRIA: World's biggest gold coin goes under the hammer after its owner went bankrupt
  • Date: 27th June 2010
  • Summary: THE AUCTIONEER ACCEPTING THE BID AND CLOSING THE SALE (SOUNDBITE) (English) MICHAEL BECKERS, COIN EXPERT AT THE DOROTHEUM AUCTION HOUSE, SAYING "We have never had such a gold price as today, but there is more fantasy to the gold price, so it can be that this coin in a few years is worth a lot more, because when this coin was bought in 1008 from this company, they bought i
  • Embargoed: 12th July 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Austria
  • Country: Austria
  • Topics: Finance,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVABPJPIBPQS9OS91VHC5KFMMGFC
  • Story Text: The 100 kg (220.5 lb) piece, one of only five Canadian 1,000,000 (CAD - Canadian dollars) Maple Leaf coins the Royal Canadian Mint has ever produced, was snapped up immediately in a written bid from ORO direct, a gold trading company based in Madrid, with no counter bids.
    The gold is 99.999 percent pure, the purest type in the market. The price of 3.27 million euros was the catalogue sum, or pure gold value based on Friday's (June 25) market price, and at nearly four million (CAD), it was four times its face value.
    "This is a very special coin in a lot of points, first of all it is the heaviest gold coin ever been produced in the world. It has 100 kg of purest gold, it has a face value of one million Canadian dollars, which is the highest face value a coin has ever had," said coin expert Michael Beckers.
    The auction was ordered by the administrator of Austrian investment group AvW Invest, which filed for insolvency in May. AvW had acquired the coin in 2007, joining an exclusive club of owners including Queen Elizabeth, who is also displayed on one side of the coin, and three unidentified investors.
    "We have never had such a gold price as today, but there is more fantasy to the gold price, so it can be that this coin in a few years is worth a lot more, because when this coin was bought in 1008 from this company, they bought it for approximately two million (euros) (2.5 million USD)," Beckers added.
    The Royal Canadian Mint launched the coin in 2007 to showcase its production facilities and steal the entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the world's biggest gold coin. That title had previously been held by the Austrian mint, who in 2004 produced fifteen 100,000-euro coins weighing 1,000 troy ounces (31.1 kg) to celebrate the 15th anniversary of its best-selling Philharmonics coin.
    "I had a secret hope that maybe it could come back to Canada, that was number one hope. And because I am ambassador here in Austria, and because of the quality and the reputation of the Austrian mint, which is also of a very high nature, there is kind of a similarity, I would have liked, number two , that is stays here. But it seems it is gone to Spain, and now they'll be able to enjoy it, and maybe think of Canada when they see this very large and very expensive and valuable gold maple leaf" said John Barrett, the Canadian ambassador to Austria.
    Analysts say that the precarious economic climate and the ups-and-downs of global stock markets means that preference for gold as a safe-haven asset, especially among smaller and older investors, has remained intact and was likely to continue for some time. In recent months mints around the world have cashed in on demand for gold and silver products and especially small gold bullion coins, with most people seeing is gold not only safe, but also flexible and always in demand for re-selling.
    Gold was at 1.253 USD an ounce on Friday, having hit a record high of 1,264.90 USD on June 21.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains identifiable children: users must ensure that they comply with local laws and regulations governing the publishing of this material.
Register