Farouk, King Publique Deposited
King Faud I of Egypt died in April 1936. His title passed to his son, Farouk I. (also spelled Faruk) He married Queen Farida in January 1938. They had two daughters but no male heir. He divorced Farida to marry Narrima Sadak in 1951. They had a son, Ahmed Faud II. The Farouk reign was noted for incompetence. The defeat of Egypt in the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli War also led to his removal. He was deposed by the army July 26, 1952. Egypt became a republic in 1953. Farouk died in exile in Rome, Italy.
Farouk assembled several collections. He owned three yachts, five airplanes and 98 automobiles. He collected stamps, watches, books, comic books and binoculars. The Farouk collection included 8500 coins and medals in gold and 164 in platinum. In 1951 his collection of orders and decorations was consigned to B. Max Mehl. The sale of his primary collection was conducted by Sothebys with a catalog by Baldwin of London. The sale was in Cairo in 1954. The catalog of "The Palace Collections of Egypt" was poorly prepared, even by the standards of the day. Many rare and valuable coins were included in group lots. Some coins had been lacquered and others had been improperly cleaned.
The collection included a 1933 double eagle. This was withdrawn at the request of the U.S. government. What happened to the piece after the sale is unknown.
A 1913 Liberty nickel sold to Sol Kaplan. It went via Abe Kosoff into the Norweb collection and was donated by them to the Smithsonian. Farouk coins were included in eight sales conducted by M. H. Bolender 1954 to 1958. More were in a Schulman sale in 1955 and a Kreisberg & Schulman sale of 1957.
bio: WWWA-4; WCN 1/5/88 obit CB May 65
- 1920-02-11
- 1965-03-18