Hidden from the Nazis Spectacular coin treasure to be auctioned in Zurich
Almost 500 gold and silver coins, buried for decades, are being offered at auction in Zurich. The story behind the unique find sounds like something out of an adventure movie, but that is how it is said to have happened.
06.11.2025, 00:00
06.11.2025, 06:55
dpa
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- A unique coin treasure is being auctioned off in Zurich.
- A collector, whose identity is being kept secret, is said to have amassed it in the 1930s before he had to hide his collection from the Nazis.
- The man buried the coins in his garden. He is said to have died shortly afterwards.
- The entire collection is insured for around 81 million francs. Only a fraction will be auctioned off.
A fabulous treasure trove of gold and silver coins that were buried in cigar boxes in a garden for decades is being auctioned off: it sounds like the script of an adventure movie, but it's reality.
Of the total of around 15,000 coins from all over the world, almost 500 from Europe will go under the hammer in Zurich on November 6. The entire collection is insured for around 81 million francs.
Coin experts, known as numismatists, go into raptures when they see the gold coins. One of them is almost as big as a beer mat, according to the renowned German expert Christian Stoess. He compiled the catalog for the auction. "That was one of the highlights of my professional life," he says. "Something like this only happens once every 100 years."
Collection hidden from the Nazis
The history of the collection is what captures the imagination of amateurs. According to the auction house Numismatica Ars Classica, a wealthy collector bought the coins all over the world in the 1930s. He had deposited smaller parts of his collection on several continents, but settled in a country in Europe with his young wife and daughter.
When the Nazis threatened to invade there, he packed most of his collection in paper bags, placed them in cigar boxes and buried them in metal boxes in his garden. When the Wehrmacht finally arrived, he suffered a stroke and died shortly afterwards.
His wife did not really know what was hidden in the metal boxes, say the owners of the auction house, brothers Arturo and Giuliano Russo. She only informed her family when she was very old and had the coins unearthed 60 years later, in the 1990s. The Russos know the family. Stoess also knows who put the treasure up for auction. They all vouch for the story.
Identity of the collector is kept secret
However, they have promised the descendants confidentiality and only talk about the "traveler's collection". Stoess also reveals nothing about the nationality, let alone the identity, of the collector. He had noted his purchases in booklets in various languages.
"You can tell that some of the coins have been in the ground for a long time," says Stoess. The partially rotten paper bags also bear witness to water ingress. "I don't find it unbelievable that the widow left the collection in the ground for so long, where it survived the Nazis," he says. "The family has enough money, they don't need the proceeds from the collection." According to the Russos, they only got their hands on the buried treasure in 2022.
The co-founder of precious metals dealer pro aurum in Munich, Robert Hartmann, is impressed: "This is a very unusual event," he says of the auction. "The sheer number of gold coins with great rarity and good condition is remarkable."
The numismatist from "pa Historical Coins AG", which he also co-founded, says he will try to get hold of a few coins. "If the price is right," he says.
The question of looted or fugitive property
When it comes to valuable collections from the 1930s, the question quickly arises as to whether they could be looted or fugitive property from Jewish persecutees. To this day, German museums and collections conduct provenance research on paintings, for example, in order to return works that were acquired unlawfully or for less than their value to the heirs of previous owners.
According to Stoess, however, the vast majority of the collection is beyond suspicion. The collector had bought his collection through dealers before the Nazis came to power. 90 percent of the coins also came from collections that had already made acquisitions before 1933.
Many of the coins came from the American banker Waldo Newcomer, for example, who ran into financial difficulties during the Great Depression at the end of the 1920s and had to sell his large collection.
This includes the cream of the crop at the auction, the coin in question, which is almost as big as a beer mat. It is listed in the catalog with an estimated price of 1.25 million francs.
Some coins tell a story
It is made of 346 grams of gold and depicts Ferdinand III (1608-1657), King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia and later Holy Roman Emperor. He had it minted as a gift for a high-ranking dignitary during the Thirty Years' War in 1629, says Stoess.
One of Hamburg-born Stoess's personal favorites is the "Hamburg Portugalöser" from around 1560, with an estimated price of 75,000 francs. It was one of the first large gold coins to be produced in Germany, he says.
Retiree Stoess worked in the coin trade for 28 years before spending the last nine years of his career at the Coin Cabinet of the Berlin State Museums. He does not want to bid. "When you've spent years dealing with the greatest coins, you don't need to own anything anymore," he says.
And: "The Coin Cabinet of the National Museums in Berlin will not be taking part in the above-mentioned auction, as the acquisition budget for this year has already been exhausted," says a spokesperson when asked. It is primarily responsible for the collection on Brandenburg and Prussia, which is already quite complete.
