Sancy I of Portugal. Henry III of France suffered from premature baldness and tried to conceal this fact by wearing a cap. As diamonds were becoming increasingly fashionable at the time, Henry arranged to borrow de Sancy's diamond to decorate his cap. Henry IV also borrowed the stone, for the more practical purpose of using it as security for financing an army. Legend has it that a messenger carrying the jewel never reached his destination, but de Sancy (by then Superintendent of Finance) was convinced that the man was loyal and had a search conducted until the site of the messenger's
Public auction for such a purpose is also called a Sheriff's sale. Real property may be subject to a public auction in order to partition the property between joint tenants who can not agree as to how the property should be divided. An estate sale conducted at the direction of a probate court may also be conducted as a public auction. Public auction A public auction is an auction held on behalf of a government in which the property to be auctioned is either property owned by the government, or property which is sold under the authority of a court of law