Rare Coin Investor

Chicago Sun Times

An uncirculated one-cent copper coin from the earliest days of the U.S. Mint in 1793 has sold for a record $1.38 million at a Florida auction. The sale price was “the most a United States copper coin has ever sold for at auction,” says James Halperin of Texas-based Heritage Auctions.

The coin was made at the Mint in Philadelphia in 1793 — the first year that the United States made its own coins. The name of the buyer wasn’t revealed.

The penny shows no wear on its lettering, its Lady Liberty face or the chain of linking rings on its back. It’s known as a “Chain Cent” because its chain of linking rings was supposed to represent the solidarity of the states. The design was changed to a wreath after some critics claimed it was symbolic of slavery.

Posted on January 12, 2012 at 4:44 pm in Uncategorized   |  RSS feed |   Reply   |   Trackback URL