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| Queen Nazli and King Farouk |
Farouk,
who ascended the throne when he was just 17 year-old wasn’t just a
sovereign, he was a collector of jewelry, stamps, currencies, antiques
and everything rare and beautiful.
Although
most of his collection is now lost thanks to the post-revolution
auctions, some pieces that surfaced in the recent year gives us a clue
on how this collection was like!
So let us celebrates
King Farouk’s 93rd birthday by highlighting some of the glorious pieces
of his collection of coins today and every Monday will have a different
collection!
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| 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double-Eagle |
King
Farouk owned the Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle coin, all the other coins
of this are understood to have been destroyed, King Farouk purchased
this coin in 1944 and had to apply for a license to import it to Egypt,
what Farouk didn’t know (or maybe he did) is that the coin was stolen
from the mint, and although the American government granted the license
before discovering the theft, they requested the return of the coin,
King Farouk didn’t return it, after the revolution the coin disappeared,
was it sold in an auction or was it stolen? no one knows, but in 1996
the coin was found in London, was returned back to the US in 2001, and
in 2002 it was auctioned for over 7.5 million dollars, the sale took
only 9 minutes. Quite a big amount of money, and a big loss for Egypt!
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| Olsen Liberty Head Nickel |
There
are only five coins of Olsen Liberty Head Nickel and they were minted
in 1913, Farouk of Egypt purchased one of them and most likely it was
sold in the Sotheby’s sale in Cairo in 1954. The coin reappeared again
in 2010 in Hawaii in an auction. The coin was sold for 3.7 million
dollars.
Knowing that King Farouk had 8500
rare coins in his collection, I can’t help but wonder how much this
collection would be worth today!
P.S: King Farouk’s anniversary is next month, till then every Monday we’ll talk about one of magnificent collections!
