Welcome back to our list of the 10 most valuable coins in history.
If you haven't read PART 1, you'll find it here.
5 - Silver Dollar of 1804 from United States
Sold for $7,680,000 in 2021
Pretty enough for presents, the 1804 dollar was minted for rulers and heads of state.
At the time of its sale, this was the 2nd most valuable silver dollar in history.
Like quite a few of the coins in this list it passed through the collection of D Brent Pogue, who died in 2019 aged just 54.
Pogue bought it in 1999, setting a world record with a $4.14 million sale.
The 1804 dollar isn’t just any coin. They were made for President Andrew Jackson, who wanted to use them as gifts to other international leaders.
This coin is known as the Sultan of Muscat coin in honour of its recipient, Said bin Sultan Al-Said, Sultan of Muscat and Oman who was given it in 1835.
The coin first entered the collecting world in 1917, when it was sold in London after appearing “mysteriously” according to some numismatic historians.
4 - Half Eagle from 1822, USA
Sold for $8,400,000 in March 2021
This coin is probably uniquely in private ownership.
Half eagles are $5 on their face. When a coin is one of only three known to survive it gets to be somewhat more valuable.
Collectors call it “legendary”, and it has been known as a rarity for a long time.
Of those three survivors of the 1822 minting, two are in the Smithsonian’s collections.
In 1890 this example sold for $900, then less than 20 years later it made $2,165, then $11,575. In 1945 it realised $14,000.
It’s another Pogue coin. And the finest example in terms of its condition, rated as uncirculated.
On its sale it was the most valuable US-minted gold coin and the third highest-priced gold coin sold at auction.
The buyer is not known, but experts rate it as likely to be worth 10s of millions in future.
3 - Brasher Doubloon with EB on Wing from 1787 private mint in the US
Sold for $9,360,000 in January 2021
For a coin of its age, this Brasher Doubloon is pristine.
This is the Brasher Doubloon in the best condition as far as we know.
There are only nine (or seven depending on your source) known Brasher Doubloons, that are split into two styles: New York and Lima. New York style coins have a scene similar to the New York State official seal. Lime-style coins look like Spanish coins of the time.
This was a New York style coin.
It was sold in a headline-making sale of the Donald G Partrick Collection that included two Brasher Doubloons and became the most valuable coin collection ever sold. It made over $19 million.
Amazingly, the auctioneers reported that the buyer of both Brasher Doubloons was the same person and that they had never bought a rare coin before.
2 - Flowing Hair Dollar from 1794, USA
Sold for $12 million in January 2013
Wonderfully sharp engraving stands out on this "flowing hair" dollar.
There was no theatrical hammering down for this private sale that apparently took several days to finalise. Time spent mostly on sorting out secure transport reportedly.
This is the first US silver dollar, and only 1,758 were struck. This is a tiny mintage for a nationally issued coin.
It had an extremely high condition rating too.
In 2013 it was auctioned for over $10 million. That snatched the world record for a coin from… the same coin’s sale for $7.85 million in 2010.
This coin had passed through several well known collections, and was sold by Bruce Morelan, who made his pile in electrical contracting. Morelan sold of some of the prize items from his collection around the same time.
This example was said to be the best Flowing Hair Dollar in existence, better than examples in national museum collections.
1 - Double Eagle of 1933, US
Sold for $18.9 million in June 2021
It's a lovely coin, but it's the tragedy of an economic crash that makes it valuable.
Coins are real-world history.
And if you’re wondering why a comparatively run-of-the-mill issue coin (a double eagle is a bullion coin, but it’s only $20) from so recent a date is worth so much then you need to cross reference your dates.
1933 was the depths of the Great Depression in the United States.
This is the presidential Executive Order 6102 that helped make this coin so special:
“All persons are hereby required to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, to a Federal Reserve bank or a branch or agency thereof or to any member bank of the Federal Reserve System all gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates now owned by them or coming into their ownership on or before April 28, 1933, with the exception of the following…”
Before that order nearly half a million of these coins had been minted. But the law’s the law, and so they were sent to the furnaces for melting down.
Inevitably, not quite all of them were.
Twenty-two survived.
It’s illegal to own them.
Two are in the US’s national coin collection. Ten are in Fort Knox.
Nine were destroyed after being discovered.
And that leaves one.
That’s the Weitzman Specimen.
Stuart Weitzman bought it from the US Mint, who secured it after it had been held outside the US for a long time - notably by King Farouk of Egypt.
It was sold to Weitzman for $7.59 million, including a fee of $20 paid to mint to render the coin into legal currency.
The certificate accompanied the coin when it was auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York for a world record $18.9 million.
Buy rare coins now
Will that nearly $19 million coin ever be bettered?
I think so.
As markets of all sorts have wobbled through these past few years of political instability the rare coin sector has climbed like a very healthy beanstalk.
We can help you get on board and start climbing.
Take a look at some of our rare coins here.
We have more coming in all the time. If you want to hear about them first you need to sign up for our newsletter. Do that here. It only takes a minute and you’ll never miss out again.
