Over the past decades the numismatic market has been transformed. In an era increasingly defined by high-volume auctions and automated processes, personal engagement and historical appreciation have often become secondary.
At Lugdunum, we remain dedicated to the principles of the traditional numismatic market, where quality takes precedence over quantity and every coin is recognised as a significant historical artefact. Where large auction houses prioritise volume, we prioritise selection and scholarship.
From Solothurn, the Baroque City of the Ambassadors, our auction house catalogues with academic rigour, undertakes systematic Provenance research, and presents every coin collection to a selected international network of collectors, dealers and institutions, from Asia to the United States.
Our auctions reach a worldwide audience through Sixbid, NumisBids and Drouot, with live bidding via AUEX.
We are pleased to serve our customers in our premises at the Müllerhof, a listed baroque country seat built from 1570, where our auctions are held in our own saleroom.
Müllerhof | St. Niklausstrasse 1 | 4500 Solothurn | Switzerland
Solothurn is regarded as the most beautiful baroque city in Switzerland. For more than 250 years, from 1530 to 1792, the ambassador of the French king resided here. The buildings from that period still define the city today.
Quality, historical significance and artistic merit are what distinguish a coin or a medal, and they are what surrounds us here every day. Numismatics was once the passion of kings, princes and patricians. Solothurn was granted the right to mint coins at a very early stage, developed a wealth of expertise over the centuries and was renowned far and wide. Our customers from Asia and the USA are delighted with the quality of the coins minted in those days.
In Solothurn we are in the right place and also rooted. With the Museum Blumenstein we created the exhibition ‘Geprägter Stolz’ in 2020, the city’s jubilee year, presenting seven centuries of Solothurn coinage. Solothurn is always worth a visit.
Solothurn lies on the direct railway line from Zurich to Geneva Airport: 35 minutes from Bern, 45 from Basel and 55 from Zurich. Parking is available at the building, and a lift makes it accessible without steps.
We prepare inventories and estate valuations of coin collections for the division of an estate, for insurance and for sale, working with heirs directly and alongside notaries, fiduciaries and executors in Switzerland and abroad.
Your coin collection reaches an international network of collectors, dealers and institutions built over more than fifteen years. Consignments are welcome at any time.
Not every collection belongs in an auction. We buy Goldvreneli, Swiss Silver coins and modern Gold and Silver Medals directly, at current rates, where their value lies in the metal rather than the collector market.
Bid in our auctions in the room, by telephone or online. Every lot is catalogued to academic standards and, wherever possible, offered with documented provenance. As an IAPN member we provide a lifetime guarantee of authenticity.
Not every piece comes to auction. We also place coins and medals privately, outside the auction calendar, including rare pieces, discreetly and at an agreed price. Send us your want list and we will contact you when a suitable piece becomes available.
A collection is made by selection, not by accumulation. We advise you on building a new collection, on developing an existing one, and on inherited collections that are to remain in the family. Do not hesitate to contact us to learn more about our curation services.
Would you like to bid at an auction in Switzerland or abroad without attending in person? Our regular participation in the most important sales worldwide allows us to examine the lots in hand, assess condition and provenance, and bid on your behalf.
For consignors and heirs: coin and medal auctions are both my expertise and my passion, and organising the dispersal of a collection in the best interest of my consignors is always a fulfilling experience, professionally and personally. I am at your side at every step, from the first valuation to the final payment – and never more than one call away. My working languages are German, French and English.
For coin collectors who wish to build a serious collection, I offer curatorial services and represent them at auctions in Switzerland and abroad.
Please do not hesitate to write or telephone.
Founder of Lugdunum, 2012. Doctorate in archaeology and history. Trained in London and Zurich. Expert at the International Bureau for the Suppression of Counterfeit Coins (IBSCC); General Secretary of the Association of Swiss Professional Numismatists (VSBN). Founder of Ex-Numis®, 2015 — over 15,000 ancient coin provenances recovered.
CHF 408’000 realised – when academic rigour and market execution produce a world record
The gothic silver medal commemorating the French victory in the Hundred Years’ War is today among the celebrated masterpieces of the Musée de la Légion d’honneur in Paris. The proceeds of the sale were gifted by the consignor to the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral.
Meticulous historical research and art-historical cataloguing made the medal’s cultural importance visible, while our filmed presentation and the direct approach to our international network of collectors and curators brought it to the attention of buyers far beyond numismatics.
Collectors and heirs have entrusted us with further exceptional collections – Medals of Comtesse de Béhague, estimated at CHF 250’000 and realised at CHF 955’000; the «Vaterland» Collection of Swiss cantonal coinage and the «Wisdom» Collection of fine Renaissance medals.
A provenance is the documented ownership history of a coin or medal. It provides legal certainty, supports authenticity and adds value. For ancient coins it matters most of all, and it matters more still when the piece was already recorded before 1970, the cut-off year of the UNESCO Convention on cultural property.
Most ancient coins lost their record of origin long ago. The evidence survives in old auction catalogues, scattered across more than a century. Finding it once meant days of searching for the history of a single coin. So we digitised our own library — several thousand catalogues, the oldest from the late 19th century. The result is a database without equal: almost a million images, which our Ex-Numis® image recognition compares in seconds. Ex-Numis® began operating in 2015, and we have since rediscovered more than 15,000 lost provenances.
Every eligible consignment goes through this process. We also work for museums, institutions and private collectors.
For those who would like to look more closely at one of the many rewarding areas of numismatics,
we have prepared the following articles with care.
They cover the origins of the Goldvreneli, known far beyond Switzerland; the popular Schützentaler (shooting taler), which once caused disquiet within the Latin Monetary Union; a true masterpiece of German Renaissance medallic art, and the coinage of Solothurn, looking back on seven centuries of minting.
The Trinity Medal
The Swiss Vreneli
Coinage of Solothurn
Swiss Schützentaler
