Huge coin collection found hidden in house's walls sells for nearly $3.5 million
A huge collection of historic gold coins, recovered from the wall of a house in France after their owner passed away, has been sold for millions of euros at auction.
Auction house Beaussant Lefèvre and Associates told CNN on Thursday that all of the coins had sold in Paris this week, fetching more than 3 million euros ($3.48 million) in total.
The coins were collected by Paul Narce, who lived in a small village in south-west France until his death in 2024, according to Beaussant Lefèvre and Associates.
'Narce, who lived a modest life and didn't see a lot of the world, spent all of his money on his collection,' said coin expert Thierry Parsy in a statement previewing the sale.
Over the years, he built up a collection of gold coins 'exceptional both in number, with more than 1,000 pieces, as well as the rarities it contains,' said Parsy.
Many of the coins date back centuries, according to Parsy.
Among them are ancient coins from the Kingdom of Macedonia, dating to 336-323 BC, as well as almost complete series of coins used during the reigns of French Kings Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI.
Narce had no direct descendants and only a few people knew of his hobby.
However, no one knew where he kept his collection, which 'could have remained undiscovered forever,' said Parsy, were it not for a notary who set out to find the coins in the house, which had been empty since Narce moved into a care home a year before he died.
The notary eventually found the coins in a small space in the wall, hidden behind a painting in a store room.
In addition to the carefully labelled collection, the notary also found 10 packages, each containing 172 gold 20 franc coins, equivalent to an ingot of gold.
The final sale far exceeded the pre-auction estimate of 2 million euros ($2.43 million).
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Miami Herald
Veteran fund manager issues dire stock market warning
The stock market loves climbing a wall of worry. We've certainly seen that over the past two months. Despite worry over mounting US debt and tariff impacts on inflation and the economy, the S&P 500 has rallied 20%. Technology stocks have done even better. The Nasdaq Composite, home to most tech leaders, is up 27%. The rally since President Trump paused most reciprocal tariffs announced on April 2, so-called "Liberation Day," for 90 days has been impressive. However, there's good reason for concern, especially since the S&P 500 is challenging all-time highs and its valuation is arguably becoming frothy again. Related: Bank of America unveils surprising Fed interest rate forecast for 2026 The risk that stocks could lose some of their luster after their rally has caught the attention of many Wall Street veterans, including long-time hedge fund manager Doug Kass. Kass has been navigating the markets since the 1970s, including as research director for Leon Cooperman's Omega Advisors, and his experience through good and bad times helped him correctly predict the sell-off earlier this year and the market bottom in April. This week, Kass updated his stock market outlook, including a surprisingly long list of red flags for why investors should be cautious. The best set-up for tantalizing returns is a market that's oversold enough to have reset forward price-to-earnings ratios to levels near the lower end of their historical averages. In February, when stocks were notching all-time highs right before the tariff-fueled reckoning, the S&P 500's P/E ratio eclipsed 22, and most sentiment measures were flashing overbought. Related: Legendary fund manager sends blunt 3-word message on economy The sell-off through early April erased much of that frothiness, driving the S&P 500's P/E ratio to 19 and below five-year averages of 19.9-not bargain-basement priced, but low enough to help catapult stocks from severely oversold readings. As a reminder, CNN's Fear & Greed indicator was at "Extreme Fear," and bearishness by most measures was sky high in the days after the April 2 tariff announcement. Now that the stock market is back near its highs, sentiment has turned optimistic again, with CNN's measure flashing "Greed." Because earnings forecasts haven't materially increased, the S&P 500's P/E ratio is north of 21-hardly cheap. "Valuation multiples expanded in a relief rally from mid-April to now and the S&P 500 now trades at 21x forward earnings, 35% above average," wrote Bank of America analysts to clients on June 14. "The index looks statistically expensive relative to its own history on all 20 of the valuation metrics we track." Doug Kass has tracked the market successfully through 1970s skyrocketing inflation, 1980s double-digit interest rates, the Savings & Loan crisis, the Internet boom and bust, the Great Recession, a pandemic, and the bear market of 2022. He's seen a lot over his nearly 50-year career, making his stock market warning now worth paying attention to. "Equities haven't been this unattractive since late 2021," wrote Kass on TheStreet Pro. "There is little room for disappointment. More Economic Analysis: Hedge-fund manager sees U.S. becoming GreeceA critical industry is slamming the economyReports may show whether the economy is toughing out the tariffs The concern that stocks have priced in much of the good news likely to come from ongoing trade negotiations may have merit, given this week's China trade deal news left tariffs at current levels near 55%. As the impact of tariffs flows through supply chains, inflation may start rising within months, crimping household and business spending. Unfortunately, that's not the only risk on Kass's mind. The money manager provided a long list of threats that could derail stocks' rally. It's a long list, so you may want to refill your beverage. He writes: Political and geopolitical polarization and competition will probably translate into less political centrism and a reduced concern for deficits, creating structural uncertainties, limited fiscal discipline, and imprudence around the globe ... and for the possibility of bond markets to "disanchor."The cracks in the foundation of the bull market are multiple and are deepening, but they are being ignored (as market structure changes have led to price momentum (fear of missing out) being favored over value and common sense).With the S&P 500 Index at around 6000, the downside risk dwarfs the upside reward for equities - in a ratio of about 5-1 (negative).Valuations (a 22-times forward Price Earnings Ratio) and (consensus) expectations for economic and corporate profit growth are all dismissed are JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon's and others' dour comments on complacency and a view that the corporate credit market is "ridiculously over-stretched."Look for the soft data (see last week's weak ISM and climb in jobless claims) to move into (and weaken) the hard data led by a slowing housing market likely to provide ample near-term evidence of the exposure and vulnerability of the middle trend-line economic growth (housing will lead us lower) coupled with sticky inflation lie ahead ("slugflation") - uncomfortable for a Federal Reserve which has to make increasingly more difficult profit growth (rising +13% in 1Q2025) will markedly decelerate in this year's second equity risk premium is at a two-decade low - typically consistent with a slide in S&P Dividend Yield is at a near record low of 1.27% - and the spread between the dividend yield and the 10-year U.S. Treasury note yield has rarely been as wide. With so many possible adverse outcomes, my baseline expectation is for seven lean months ahead over the balance of 2025. Kass' is clearly nervous that any single or combination of these headwinds could cause stocks to give back some gains. What should investors do? Over time, the stock market goes up and to the right, so those with long-term horizons are often best off sticking to their plan, recognizing that there will be bumps and bruises along the way. However, investors with a shorter-term horizon may want to rein in some risk, pocket some profit, and increase 'dry powder' to take advantage of any weakness if Kass's warning proves prescient. Related: Veteran fund manager revamps stock market forecast The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
France says supports Harvard, welcomes foreign students
France's foreign minister on Saturday said his country supported students and staff at Harvard, after President Donald Trump tried to ban foreign students from the prestigious US university. "We stand with universities facing the threat of government control, restriction to their funding, constraints on their curricula or research projects," Jean-Noel Barrot said during a commencement address at the high-profile HEC business school in Paris. "We stand with Harvard faculty, with Harvard students, facing unjustified stress and anxiety right now," he added in English. "Should US courts uphold decisions to ban international students, France will offer (them) a safe place to complete their degrees," he said. Universities and research facilities in the United States have come under increasing political and financial pressure under Trump, including with threats of massive federal funding cuts. Harvard has been at the forefront of Trump's campaign against top American universities after it defied his calls to submit to oversight of its curriculum, staffing, student recruitment and "viewpoint diversity". A US court last week put a temporary stay on Trump's latest effort to stop foreign students from enrolling at Harvard. A White House proclamation a day earlier had sought to bar most new international students at Harvard from entering the country, and said existing foreign enrollees risked having their visas terminated. The US government has already cut around $3.2 billion of federal grants and contracts benefiting Harvard and pledged to exclude the institution from any future federal funding. France and the European Union are seeking to encourage disgruntled researchers to relocate from the United States to Europe. European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said last month that the EU would launch a new incentives package worth 500 million euros ($580 million) to make the 27-nation bloc "a magnet for researchers". French President Emmanuel Macron in April unveiled plans for a funding programme to help national universities and other research bodies cover the cost of bringing foreign scientists to the country. ah/rmb
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Starmer's latest freebie: British sovereignty in exchange for nothing
While we can't rely on the French to help police the Channel – despite paying them £500 million for the privilege, we can always trust our Gallic cousins to bear a grudge. We already knew that the Prime Minister's great EU 'reset' was a sham; that much was clear when all we got in return was the use of e-gates that were already operational in many European countries. Now, we learn that we may not even be granted access to the bloc's industrial defence programme, despite Sir Keir Starmer's insistence that defence and security was a central tenet of the deal. As he boasted last month after selling us out to Brussels: 'We've also struck a new defence and security partnership to strengthen our cooperation and strengthen our security – which is vital in this dangerous new era. 'And it will open the door to working with the EU's new defence fund – providing new opportunities for our defence industry, supporting British jobs and livelihoods.' Except, of course, the French have other ideas. In yet another example of just how bad Labour is at negotiating anything (see also the Chagos surrender and, more recently, the 'deal' to allow Spanish border guards to check passports on Gibraltar) we now learn that Emmanuel Macron is trying to shut out British arms firms from the European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP). While different to the defence fund, which is known as SAFE (Security Action for Europe), EDIP will see cash pumped into joint procurement projects and the production of weapons, ammunition and other military hardware. It was created for the benefit of the EU and 'allies' but French diplomats have insisted the tool should be solely used to boost firms based inside the EU, as well as Norway and Ukraine – shutting out the UK. So much for Starmer's boast that the reset deal would put Britain 'back on the world stage' and give us 'unprecedented access to the EU market, the best of any country.' Labour is yet to reveal how many billions is being squandered on a reset that has already prompted another big fat 'non' from Paris. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
