Transylvanian Coins from the Ragoczy Family

The earliest history of the offered coin collection has unfortunately been lost, but it is at least known that it has belonged to Johannes Walther Franz Lothar Valerius Ragoczy, who was of Hungarian descent, but immigrated from Silesia to Denmark in 1898. Together with Louis H. Poulsen, he created a profitable business as a leather goods wholesaler and established one of the leading leather goods companies in the Nordic countries with a main office located on Amaliegade in central Copenhagen.

Valerius Ragoczy had a big heart when it came to art, history and literature, and was a collector with a capital C. Among other items, he owned several paintings by well-known artists such as Jens Juel – as well as a book collection with rare works by Tycho Brahe.

His most remarkable collection, however, consisted of his Danish and Norwegian coins, which were sold at auctions in 1959 and 1961. Several of the coins have until now remained in the Ragoczy family's possession, unbeknownst to both collectors and researchers. These coins can now be found at our upcoming coin auction.

Transylvania is probably especially known for the infamous Count Dracula and other vampyric lore, but in the real world, the region contains the fascinating and complex history of the House of Rákóczi, which has played a pivotal role in the creation of a national identity.

The family’s many historic members include names such as Sigismund Rákóczi (1544-1608), who had an illustrious career during the wars against the Ottomans. He was appointed Prince of Transylvania by the Siebenburg Diet in 1607, and at his death he had amassed such great fortunes that his descendants became the richest in Hungary. Sigismund's son, Georg I Rákóczi (*1593 - 1648), who was a devout Protestant and thus in open opposition to the Habsburg monarchy, was Prince of Transylvania from 1630 to 1648.

At our upcoming coin auction, you can once again let yourself be seduced by the sublime qualities that characterize Karsten's collection, as we offer the second half of the memorable collection. The term "difficult follow-up" is not applicable for this last part of Karsten Kold's collection, which once again only contains the sublime – the difficult part will be what to choose.

From Karsten Kold’s collection, you will also find a sublime example of a combination of rarity and quality: Christian IV's historically and numismatically unique Piaster from 1624. This is Denmark's oldest colonial coin, the most beautiful example among the very few of these coins in private ownership, and with a remarkable series of previous owners consisting of great numismatists from the beginning of the 19th century and up until today. Here you are not only buying an extremely rare coin, but an important piece of Danish Renaissance history as well as a piece of collector's history, which the new owner can become a part of. If you hesitate during this auction, you can only hope that the buyer is somewhat older than yourself, because otherwise the chance for another bid will most likely not come again any time soon.