A $100 Million Coin Collection Was “Buried For Decades”; Now It’s Up For Auction

If you’re looking for motivation to take the ole’ metal detector out on the beach and wander around aimlessly today, we might have it for you.

A coin collection buried for over 50 years is expected to bring in more than $100 million at auction, making it likely the most valuable ever sold. Known as the Traveller Collection, it includes coins from over 100 regions, spanning ancient to modern times, CNN reported last week.

The first sale, run by Numismatica Ars Classica, begins May 20, with auctions continuing over the next three years. Experts say the collection’s hidden past—buried underground for decades—makes it especially rare and remarkable.

According to a press release shared with CNN, the anonymous collector behind the Traveller Collection began buying gold coins after the 1929 Wall Street Crash and developed “a taste for coins with great historical interest, beauty and rarity.” Over time, he amassed around 15,000 coins.

The CNN report says in the 1930s, he and his wife traveled across the Americas and Europe, acquiring rare coins and documenting each purchase. As World War II loomed, they buried the collection in aluminum boxes underground, where it remained hidden for 50 years.

“The collection spans all geographical areas and contains exceptionally rare coins often in a state of preservation never seen in modern times,” the release states. Some coins have never appeared at public auction before.

Among the most notable pieces is a massive 100 ducat gold coin from 1629, minted under Ferdinand III of Habsburg. Weighing 348.5 grams, it’s one of the largest European gold coins ever produced.

The auction will also feature an “exceedingly rare” five-piece Toman set, minted in Tehran and Isfahan during the late 1700s and early 1800s by Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar. Only five complete sets are known to exist, including one housed at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.

Arturo Russo, director of Numismatica Ars Classica, called the sale “a landmark in the history of numismatics,” citing the range, rarity, and quality of the coins, along with the collection’s unique backstory.

David Guest, a consultant to the collection, added: “Not only was the quality exceptional but many of the coins before me were of types not known to have been offered for sale in over 80 years and, in some cases, completely unrecorded.”