WCN connection helps highlight October Oslo auction
By Michael Brady
A collection of 117 Norwegian coins of seldom high quality will individually
be put on the auction block at the 40th semiannual Oslo Mynthandel
auction, to be held October 3 in the Grand Hotel in Oslo. In all,
some 1000 coins will be auctioned, for a total pre-sale value of more
than two million Norwegian kroner, about $300,000.
Jan Olav Aamlid of Oslo Mynthandel, points out that "there's
a World Coin News connection in the spectrum of coins at this auction,
as some of the more outstanding items came from Americans who contacted
us after reading an article on our auctions in the July issue."
"Quality and rarity are the hallmarks this October," remarks
Gunnar Thesen, Aamlid's partner. "One amazingly complete Norwegian
coin collection was assembled by Les Hannula, a retired mechanical
engineer living in Illinois. His mother was Norwegian and his father
Finnish, so when he took up numismatics as a boy, he specialized in
Scandinavian coins. He was a stickler for quality; whenever he came
across a coin of higher quality than an otherwise identical coin in
his collection, he bought it and thereby upgraded the quality of his
collection. I have seldom seen so many coins of extremely fine and
uncirculated qualities in a single collection." The star of the
collection, Thesen explains, is an uncirculated half speciedaler struck
in 1873: "It's quality is reflected in its price; ten years ago,
it went for 30,000 Norwegian kroner; its pre-sale price at this auction
is a hundred thousand, equivalent to about $14,000."
The rarest coin put up for bid is a half speciedaler with star, struck
in 1835. "I've searched ownership and auction records back to
1835," Thesen explains, "and have found that there is only
one other coin like it in private ownership. And it's unlikely that
coin will come on the market, as it is part of the collection held
by Den Norske Bank, Norway's largest commercial bank. The pre-sale
valuation of the coin to be auctioned is $10,000, and it may go for
twice that." Other rare coins to be auctioned include two Swedish
King Anund Jakob pennies, struck during his reign from 1022 to 1050;
their pre-sale values are $15,000 each.
The auction catalog was published on September 9, and is available
in Europe and Asia from Oslo Mynthandel, tel (47) 22416078, and in
North America from Kent Froseth of Minneapolis, tel (612) 831-9550.
