One of the first pennies ever minted in the US fetched almost $1.2m at auction on Thursday in Baltimore. The 1792 Birch cent is believed to be one of less than a dozen such examples in existence.
Coin collectors – numismatists expected the penny to fetch “north of” $750,000. Its sale price quickly exceeded that. A coin expert at the Stack’s Bowers auction house, which hosted the auction, wrote before the penny’s sale that the price should, “reflect the beauty and rarity of this lovely – and important – 1792 Birch cent”.
The coin is about twice the size of a modern penny, according to experts interviewed by Good Day Baltimore. It features a portrait of “Miss Liberty”, a woman with flowing hair, and the words “Liberty, Parent of Science & Industry”.
It was minted before some of the first large-scale runs of coins by the US Mint, which was established in 1792.
“The 1792 Birch cent is considered the first example of the denomination in American numismatics,” wrote Frank Van Valen, one of the foremost numismatists in the US and author of the definitive A Guide Book of United States Coins: The Official Red Book.
“The history of the piece includes correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and George Washington as well as mint activities before the mint buildings were finished in late 1792,” wrote Van Valen. The penny was probably minted near the same time as the 1792 half disme, a coin which according to legend was made from Martha Washington’s melted silver.
The million-dollar penny is unlikely to be the only coin news of the year. A collection of early American coins known as the Pogue Collection comes up for auction in May. The collection is considered the finest set of early American coins in existence, and could sell for more than nine figures.
Though the Birch cent sold on Thursday wasn’t cheap, it was not the most expensive one-cent piece ever sold. That record appears to belong to a Beverly Hills man, who paid $2.5m for a Birch cent in January.
