Gold Coins Found in Walls of Home Sell for $3 Million
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Gold coins found in the wall of a house in France have been sold for millions of euros at an auction.
Auction house Beaussant Lefèvre and Associates told CNN that the discovered coins had sold for $3.48 million.
Why It Matters
The discovery of the coins was both significant in terms of their monetary value and rarity.
What To Know
The coins were found in a house in a small village called Castillonnès in southwest France, about 15 miles south of the town of Bergerac, and had been collected by Paul Narce, who lived in the house and died in August 2024, aged 89.
Gold coins. Exceptional auction by Agrasc in partnership with the National Directorate of State Property Interventions.
Gold coins. Exceptional auction by Agrasc in partnership with the National Directorate of State Property Interventions.
Sipa via AP Images/ Credit:ROMUALD MEIGNEUX/SIPA/2501291749
No one knew where he kept the collection, and he had no direct descendants. A notary in charge of his estate went to discover them after Narce died having heard rumors from villagers that Narce had collected them. Narce had moved into a care home the year before his death after his sister died.
The coins had been hidden in a small space in the wall behind a painting in a store room. They had been labeled.
The notary found 10 packages that each contained 172 gold 20 franc coins.
Some of the coins in the collection were from the Kingdom of Macedonia, dating to 336-323 BC. There was also a near complete series of coins used during the reigns of French Kings Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI.
They had initially been valued at 2 million euros ($2.43 million) but sold for far more at the auction.
What People Are Saying
In a statement previewing the sale, coin expert Thierry Parsy said: ""Narce, who lived a modest life and didn't see a lot of the world, spent all of his money on his collection."
He added that some of the coins date back centuries and that the collection was "exceptional both in number, with more than 1,000 pieces, as well as the rarities it contains."
The collection "could have remained undiscovered forever," Parsy added.
"I have never seen such a major collection go on sale from the point of view of quantity and quality," he said. Narce "knew what he was buying," he added.
Pierre Sicaud, the village mayor, said people in the village had not imagined that Narce and his sister had collected such a valuable lot of coins.
"They were very polite, very modest people who lived in an ordinary house a stone's throw from the mairie," he told the Sud Ouest newspaper.
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