A Polish coin from 1621 has been sold for €1.3 million (5.6 million zloty) at an auction in Monaco that also featured two other Polish coins from the same period.
Described by the auction house as “exceptional” and “almost uncirculated”, the 80-ducate coin depicts King Sigismund III Vasa – who was king of Poland from 1587 to 1632 – and was probably issued to commemorate a military victory against the Ottoman Empire.
It dates from the time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which existed between 1569 and 1795. As well as being king of Poland, Sigismund was also grand duke of Lithuania and for a time king of Sweden and grand duke of Finland.
The coin, which was minted in 1621 in Bydgoszcz, was likely issued to mark the victory of Polish-Lithuanian forces against the invading Ottoman army at the Battle of Khotyn in what is today Ukraine.
Today for the first time, Lithuanian, Polish and Ukrainian post offices issue a common postage stamp – dedicated to the Battle of Khotyn (1621) between a Polish-Lithuanian army with Cossack allies and an invading Ottoman Imperial army.https://t.co/9s4Bc4qi2L pic.twitter.com/7TNKc6nhVf
— Eitvydas Bajarūnas (@EitvydasB) September 3, 2021
On one side, it features a bust and the Latin inscription “SIGISMVNDVS III D G POLONIÆ ET SVECIÆ REX”, meaning “Sigismund III, By God’s Grace King of Poland and Sweden”.
On the other appears the coat of arms of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the words “MAGNVS DVX LITVAN RVSS PRVSS MAS SAM LIVON ZC”, meaning “Grand Duke of Lithuania, Ruthenia, Prussia, Masovia, Samogitia, Livonia”.
The coin was sold at the starting price of €1.3 million while two others – one from 1596 depicting Sigismund III Vasa and the other from 1650-1658 featuring his son, King John II Casimir Vasa – were sold for €24,000 (103,434 zloty) and €44,000 (189,629 zloty) respectively.
The most expensive Polish coins ever sold at auction also came from 1621 and depict Sigismund III Vasa. The absolute record was set in 2018, when a 100-ducat coin went for $2.16 million in New York. The record in Poland itself came last year, when a 50-ducat coin sold for 2.7 million zloty.
In the latest episode of our Brief History of Poland podcast series, we look at the war-torn seventeenth century.@StanleySBill talks about the Polish-Russian wars, Ukrainian uprising, conflict with the Turks, and Sarmatian culture https://t.co/RlK0vpluwe
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 1, 2021
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Main image credit: MDC Monaco
Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.
