Earned 22.1 Billion Won in 4 Days... Descendants Hit Jackpot by Following the Will to "Sell After 100 Years"

A Businessman Who Collected 20,000 Rare Coins in His Lifetime
Left a Will Asking Descendants Not to Sell Them for 100 Years
The First Collection Among the Coin Collection Goes Up for Auction

Descendants who honored the will of an ancestor who died 100 years ago have hit the jackpot worth 20 billion won, drawing attention. On the 18th (local time), CNN reported on the story of Lars Emil Bruun, a prominent Danish collector who died in 1923. Bruun, a Danish businessman who passed away in 1923, left a will instructing that the coins he had collected throughout his life should not be sold for 100 years but kept preserved. His descendants honored his will and later put the collected coins up for auction.

Brunn, a Danish businessman who died in 1923, left a will instructing that the coins he had collected throughout his life should not be sold but kept for 100 years. His descendants honored his will and later put the collected coins up for auction.
[Photo by Reuters·Yonhap News]

From the 14th for four days, the first collection of Bruun’s personal coin collection, consisting of 20,000 pieces, was auctioned in Copenhagen, Denmark. After bidding, 286 coins were sold for a total of 14.82 million euros (approximately 22.1 billion won). The coins sold included gold and silver coins from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden that Bruun collected from the late 15th century. Among them was one of the oldest gold coins from the Scandinavian Peninsula, which was sold for 1.2 million euros (approximately 1.8 billion won). Before the auction, the National Museum of Denmark, which held the right of first refusal, purchased seven rare coins from Bruun’s collection.

Born in poverty in 1852, Bruun amassed a vast fortune through the butter business. Interested in coin collecting from a young age, he used his wealth to collect many coins and became a founding member of the Danish Numismatic Society in 1885. In an interview with a Danish magazine during his lifetime, Bruun expressed his affection for coins, saying, “The good thing about coin collecting is that when you are angry or anxious about something, looking at coins or repeatedly studying the many unresolved problems they present calms the mind.”

A banner announcing the auction of Bruun's coin collection was hung in front of Odd Fellow Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark.
[Photo by Reuters·Yonhap News]

After experiencing World War I, he worried that the collections of the Royal Danish Museum could be reduced to ashes. He left a will to his descendants saying, “If everything goes well 100 years later, it is okay to sell the coins,” believing that his collection could serve as a substitute if the same thing happened again. However, to sell all of Bruun’s collection, several more auctions will be necessary. The company hosting this auction stated, “If all of Bruun’s collections are sold, it will become the most expensive international coin collection in history,” adding, “It is the most valuable collection of coins ever brought to market and is insured for 72.5 million dollars.”