I am a little perplexed by the sudden appearance by so many of the Goetz dies. One imagines if the dies had been acquired legitimately at some point in the past the manner of acquisition and their sudden appearance would be better documented. While I don't collect these particular medal I would greet with some dismay news that the Monnaie de Paris suddenly released the dies of all the works of Daniel Dupuis.

The auctioning of the original Karl Goetz dies is a disaster for numismatics. They should be defaced, even in a minor way, so anything struck from them will be easily seen. And it appears the ownership trail is in question and this needs to be resolved before the dies are auctioned! And will known Chinese minters be banned from the auction?

There's still a big gap in information that may never get reported after this dispersal. How did this many dies leave the mint, who owned them and why are they being sold? Is it a museum deaccessioning? The Goetz family selling? Some other private owner? I understand that providing those details can easily negate the anonymity of the seller which is unfortunate since it leaves us with a potentially permanent gap in knowledge.