Inge Bäder from Donaueschingen brought a gold chain from her mother to “Bares für Rares”. “Since no one is wearing them, we want to sell them,” says the woman, who traveled to the Pulheim rolling mill with her husband Thomas.
Heide Rezepa-Zabel is immediately enthusiastic: She raves about the “impressive, huge coin,” which has a diameter of almost four centimeters. It is a quadruple ducat and weighs 13.94 grams.
The coin shows the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, “depicted almost as a Roman emperor with a laurel wreath and regalia.” The expert explains that the coin was minted until 1914. However, due to its great popularity, it was continued to be coined during the lifetime of the emperor, who died in 1916. The official re-minting year 1915 has been stamped on all coins since then – until today. The popularity is enormous: in 1968 alone, 4.2 million single ducats were minted, explains Rezepa-Zabel, as well as almost a million quadruple ducats. The coins therefore have no collector value.
For this reason, Inge Bäder would also be satisfied with the price of gold, which she puts at 1200 euros. Rezepa-Zabel is a little lower, it comes to a range of 1000 to 1100 euros. The sellers agree to this.
In the dealer’s room, one person in particular is impressed by the coin: “I’m always happy when I see the Austrian double eagle,” says Innsbruck native Wolfgang Paurisch, who starts the auction with 500 euros. Fabian Kahl and Julian Schmitz-Avila also take part, so the price quickly rises to 1000 euros.
When Pauritsch offers 1,150, exceeding the estimated value, Thomas Bäder is ready to agree to the deal. But then the wife intervenes: “Are you quiet!”, Inge Bäder shouts at her husband because she wants to get more money. This causes a lot of laughter among the dealers. Her courageous intervention is also rewarded: in the end she receives 1,200 euros for the coin – exactly the price she wanted.
The only downside: The Franz Josef Ducats are not going to Austria. Instead, Julian Schmitz-Avila can be happy about the gold piece. And the pools are also happy: they want to use the proceeds to travel.
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