Hidden coin collection in walls achieves almost $ 3.5 million

Hidden coin collection in walls achieves almost $ 3.5 million

An impressive collection of historical gold coins that was recovered from a wall of a house in France after the death of its owner was sold for several million euros.

auction success in Paris

The auction house Baussant Lefèvre and Associates informed CNN on Thursday that all coins were sold in Paris this week and brought in a total of more than 3 million euros (3.48 million US dollars).

The history of the collection

The coins were collected by Paul Narce, who lived in a small village in southwestern France until his death in 2024. According to Baussant Lefèvre and Associates, Narce lived a modest life and hardly traveled, but invested all his money in his coin collection. Coin expert Thierry Parsy commented and said: "Narce had built up an extraordinary collection that impresses with regard to the number of over 1,000 pieces and the rarities that contain it".

historical treasures

Many of the coins are centuries old, including antique coins from the Kingdom of Macedonia, which on 336-323 BC. Chr. and Louis XVI.

a hidden legacy

Narce had no direct descendants and only a few knew about his hobby. Nobody also knew where he kept his collection. "The coins could have remained undetected forever," Parsy remarked and referred to a notary who discovered the hiding place in the house, which has been emptied to a nursing home since the move of Narce.

discovery of the coins

The notary finally found the coins in a small room in the wall, hidden behind a picture in a storage room. In addition to the carefully labeled collection, he also discovered 10 packages, each contained 172 gold coins of 20 Franc, which corresponds to the weight of a gold bar.

Surprising auction proceeds

The final sales price exceeded the estimate before the auction of 2 million euros ($ 2.43 million) and thus represented a remarkable success for the auction house.