A 1792 Birch cent, believed to be the earliest known example, led a major auction of US currency at Stack's Bowers in Baltimore on March 26 - with a final bid of $1.1m.
The lot failed to match the $2.8m record set for another specimen at Heritage Auctions last year.
 The lot is the earliest known Birch cent |
This example was described by 19th century numismatist Lorin Parmelee as "a sharp, bold impression, extremely fine, a splendid specimen of this great rarity and probably finest known."
Birch cents are some of the most sought after US coins as they were among the first ever produced at the US Mint.
They are mentioned in an August, 1792 letter from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington: "There has been also a small beginning in the coinage of the half dismes and Cents, the want of small coins in circulation calling our first attentions to them."
Vicken Yegparian, a spokesman for the auction house, told the Baltimore Sun: "It's not every day you sell a million-dollar rarity. The primary motivation is a love of history, a love of the beauty and the lore of the coin.
"In the top-tier pieces, some of it is just bragging rights: 'I have something you don't.'"
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