When it comes to gold coins, sometimes even a multimillion dollar sale can be characterized as a “disappointment.” That’s what is being used to describe the recent sale of the largest gold coin in the world by Vienna auction house Dorotheum. CoinLink reports that the 21-inch, 220-pound coin created by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007 was sold at auction for $4.02 million.
The coin was part of a collection of assets (such as mint proof coin sets) seized by authorities after the collapse of Austrian investment firm AvW Group. The firm’s founder Wolfgang Auer von Welsbach currently is in an Austrian jail awaiting trial for fraud and embezzlement charges.
Despite reports of several potential bidders from a list of many of the world’s top collectors of gold bullion coins, only one entity actually made a bid: Spanish gold trading firm Oro Direct. By purchasing the coin, they join an exclusive list of owners of the extremely rare mint including Queen Elizabeth II (who is pictured on the coin).