Ferdinand Philipp Maria August Raphael of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the second prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and lord of Csábrág and Szitnya, both in modern-day Slovakia.
Background
Born in the Tuileries Palace in Paris as Ferdinand Philipp Maria August Raphael of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, he was the eldest son of August, prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Clémentine of Orléans. His mother was a daughter of King Louis Philippe I of France.
Career
In 1870, he became a Major in the Hungarian army. On the morning of 30 January 1889, he and Count Josef Hoyos-Sprinzenstein and valet Johann Loschek discovered the bodies of Rudolf and his underage sweetheart Baroness Mary Vetsera, who had also been shot dead. Philipp spent his last years at Bürglaß castle in Coburg.
He died in 1921, aged 77.
He was buried in the Koháry crypt in the Saint Augustin church in Coburg. Prince Philip had an important collection of coins from Saxony, the East and overseas.
He published about Oriental numismatics. His coin collection was auctioned in 1928 by the auction house Leo Hamburger in Frankfurt.
Membership
He was a member of the Catholic Koháry line of the House of Wettin and an elder brother of Ferdinand, tsar of Bulgaria.