From Iceland to Køge Bay – Come to our Coin Auction in Lyngby!

It is a privilege to have the world’s finest privately owned collection of Icelandic banknotes as part of the upcoming auction on 7 November at 4 pm. The collection is created by Freyr Jóhannesson, Master of Science in Engineering and a leading expert in Icelandic numismatics. He bought the first banknotes for his collection as a schoolboy, and numismatics remained his great passion and hobby for more than six decades. The collection contains many rarities and testifies to his focus on signatures, colours and numbering. We will be offering the majority of Jóhannesson’s collection of banknotes from 1783–1960 at the Live Auction. Older Icelandic banknotes are very popular among collectors not only because of their alluring colours and beautiful motifs with falcons, geysers, Hekla, and Fjallkonumynd (the female personification of Iceland) but also because their portraits of kings of Denmark are often of high quality. This provides insight into the historical relationship between Iceland and Denmark.

However, we begin our auction day at 10 am with a sizeable selection of coins, medals and banknotes from all over the world. The highlights include Danish plastic surgeon Peter Preuss’ exquisite collection of Danish coins from the Viking age and the early Middle Ages. Our non-Danish coin lots begin with several gold coins from Edward III to Edward VII, spearheaded by a 5 Guineas from 1672. Whereas coins, by virtue of their practical function alone, form an integral part of the everyday life of past times, medals bear witness to the special events that were already known to be “historic” in the past. The best example of this in Denmark is Christopher Schneider’s rare baroque medal with a motif from the Battle of Køge Bay in 1677; its bold composition virtually draws the viewer directly into the decisive stages of battle. In addition, the auction offers a gold medal awarded to the Dane Poul Bergenhammer for his participation in road cycling at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, tetradrachmas from ancient Greece, aurei from the Roman Empire, and entrepreneur Per Henriksen’s unique collection of Danish banknotes.