King Farouk of Egypt was, among other things, a coin collector. Egypt 2 Piastres, 1944, King Farouk He amassed a huge collection of coins by the early 1950's. A popular uprisng and military coup removed him from office in 1952. The new Egyptian government hired European coin dealers to sell off his collection, including many US gold coins. The recent revolution which toppled Pres. Mubarak was very similar to the 1952 revolution, but the newscasters keep calling it "new" and saying that now "Egypt is free". Did Pres. Mubarak collect coins?
Don't know, but contrary to the king, Mubarak was not on the circulation coins. What I have read is that Egypt is the second biggest foreign customer of the Royal Mint (UK), and of course they don't know for sure yet whether the existing contracts will be continued. But I suppose there is no reason for the new military regime to cancel them ... Christian
His summer home had the best view in the world. You can see it in the center of this photo; http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=29.9803178&lon=31.1361659&z=18&l=0&m=s This isn't as little as you might think. That little thing next to it is more than 700' on a side.
King Farouk the First of Egypt, who reigned from 1936 until 1952, was a prolific collector. His taste for the rare and unusual was the catalyst for his assemblage of a diverse collection of items from around the world, even including some unsavory "collectibles." His coin collection included an estimated 8,500 gold coins and medals. King Farouk made most of his coin purchases in the 1940s, in an era when a numismatic dollar (and an Egyptian pound) went a long way. Several American dealers supplied the king with coins, but they soon discovered that a downside to selling to him was that it usually took a long time to receive payment, especially if the invoice totaled more than $10,000. The larger invoices had to be routed to the Egyptian treasury, significantly increasing the time it took for the payment to be received, whereas the king had the authority to authorize payment of the smaller invoices. Not surprisingly, the American dealers soon learned to limit the invoices to less than $10,000. When all was said and done, King Farouk had amassed one of the largest, most important collections of coins in the history of numismatics. After the Egyptian military forced King Farouk to flee the country in 1952, the American coin dealers had a great interest in what was to become of the Farouk Collection. Abe Kosoff goes into great detail in his book concerning the pre-sale uncertainty and negotiations that took place. Eventually the Egyptian government established a sale date and the London firm of Baldwin & Co. was hired to describe the coins, with Sotheby & Co. publishing the catalog. The coins and medals volume was one of a set of Sotheby catalogs entitled The Palace Collections of Egypt , which offered several categories of the king's collectibles, but did not mention King Farouk by name. Fred Baldwin, on the lawn of Koubbeh Palace, Cairo, 1954 Because Fred Baldwin had to catalog the coins in Cairo, under military guard, and in a short period of time, it was not possible to do the great collection justice. Due to its sheer size, most of the coins were sold in large lots (often with fifteen or twenty coins per lot), sorted by denomination, with a variety of dates and mintmarks. Thus, most lots had a combination of rare and common coins. John J. Pittman examines a coin at the Farouk Auction, Cairo, 1954 A number of well-known American dealers and collectors attended the sale in Cairo. Dealers in attendance included Abe Kosoff, Sol Kaplan, Bob Schermerhorn, James Randall, Paul Wittlin, and Hans Schulman. Prominent collectors included John J. Pittman, Gaston DiBello, and Ambassador & Mrs. R. Henry Norweb. A number of factors prevented the coins from reaching their optimum value at the auction. These included the remote location, the uncertain financial arrangements, the political instability, the large lots, and the awkward manner in which the coins were presented for lot viewing. Collectors such as John J. Pittman realized the true opportunity to acquire important pieces at "fire sale" prices and made the most of it. Mr. Pittman reportedly took out a second mortgage on his residence to finance the trip and his purchases, which turned out to be among the most significant of his numismatic career. The sale was complicated by the fact that King Farouk had outstanding bills in excess of $300,000 from dealer Hans Schulman. After much uncertainty and following negotiations with the Egyptian government, an arrangement was made whereby Mr. Schulman was issued a credit in the amount of the due bills, against which auction purchases could be made. In order to recover his financial interest, Mr. Schulman became a major buyer at the auction, often allowing other dealers to obtain coins from his repurchased lots. The Auction Catalog
In aesthetic terms, they probably ought to go with someone else, maybe the Austrian Mint or the Royal Canadian Mint. I am British, but frankly, the Royal Mint produces crap that makes me ashamed to be a British numismatist. I did a double take on a 2010 £1 coin the other day, the workmanship was so poor that I intially thought it was a counterfeit. I have seen actual counterfeits that look better than the 2010 official issue. And the sovereigns they knock out look like barely discernable metal discs, especially the quarter sovereign, where the design is barely even visible and could probably be forged to a much higher standard by pretty much anyone with some basic engraving knowledge. They must knock 'em out super cheap compared to other mints to persuade foreign customers to buy their cheesy wares, I don't see how they can touch most other mints in the civilised world for quality...
In a more on topic related note. King Farouk was supposed to be a notorious coin cleaner. I wonder how many rare and priceless coins in his collection were the victims of his over-enthusiastic 'maintanance' of his collection?
I don't know about collector coins, but I will guarantee you that Mubarak and his family have many, many gold coins. As was reported recently in the New York Times, the Swiss government is moving to freeze his assetts in that country, and I'm sure many other financial institutions throughout the world will follow suit. This is a prime example of why bullion gold coins can be so valuable; you can stash them any where you like, they are hard to trace, you can easily convert them into cash, and they are relatively easy to transport. Not only convenient for your run of the mill, middle eastern dictator/despot, but they are convenient for the average joe if things really got hairy and our socio economic system started to break down.
Very interesting stuff. Willieboyd, that particular coin type in your first post is one of my favorite modern, post-Ottoman Silver coins of Egypt, I have several, but none quite as nice as yours. My 2004 Standard Catalogue of World Coins lists this coin as having a mintage of just 32,000. Do you know if that is correct?
I have four or five of these silver hexagonal coins. My 2005 catalog has "32,000" also. I suspect that it is a typographical error, probably is "32,000,000". King Farouk would have wanted his picture on lots of coins.
I have 5 of these hexagonal 2 Piastre coins myself, but one has most of the reverse worn completely off, still decent portrait, the others are slightly better, and the ones I posted are my nicest and favorite. The only other decent Egyptian silver coin I have is a 1335AH/1917 10 Piastres, that was a gift from a man I took care of who had been a professor of the Classics at Princeton. He was born in 1910, and possibly got the 1917 coin in Egypt while he was there in the 1930s. He also gave me a very special Iraq 1932 silver 200 fils (one Riyal) of King Faisal I, it is one of my favorite modern coins of the middle east, and very dear to me, and that one he did get in Iraq as change in the 1930s. As for the hexagonal Egyptian 1944 silver 2 Piastres I suspected it may be a typo error as well in Krause, 32,000 seems a bit low... but who knows, maybe someone can clear that up.... Nice coin fretboard. I like his military style bust like these.
