Extremely rare silver coin — found in old cabinet — breaks world record at auction
A small silver coin — about the size of a nickel — sold for $2.52 million at an auction, breaking the world record nearly eight years after it was found, a gallery said.
The coin, identified as a 1652 Massachusetts threepence, is the rarest of four rare coin designs struck between 1652 and 1682 at the Boston Mint, the first mint in the United States, Stack’s Bowers Galleries said in a Nov. 19 news release.
The coin was pressed just weeks before the mint was established, experts said.
“Since before the Civil War, collectors have regarded the 1652 New England threepence as the single-rarest American colonial coin,” Stephanie Sabin, Professional Coin Grading Service president, told Coin World. “For more than a century, it’s been known as entirely unobtainable for private collectors.”
Another holed threepence coin has been in the Massachusetts Historical Society’s collection for 120 years, according to the release.
On one side, the coin features an engraving of two tiny letters, N and E for New England. The denomination in pence is rendered on the other side.
The rare threepence was found around 2016 in an old cabinet in Amsterdam, but the owner only recently decided to research the discovery, the gallery said.
The coin is believed to come from the Quincy family, which included former first-lady Abigail Adams, experts said.
In a 12-minute bidding battle, the coin — which would be worth $1.03 based on today’s market — sold for more than three times in-house presale estimates and easily beat the previous world record price of $646,250, the release said.
