LAS VEGAS – The world of coin trading has a new gold standard, after the only known “half eagle” from 1822 for $ 5 and privately held was sold at auction in Las Vegas for $ 8.4 million, they said. experts on Friday.
Douglas Mudd, curator and director of the Edward C. Rochette Museum of Money in Colorado Springs, Colorado, confirmed that there are only three such coins in the world and that the auction price was the highest for a minted American gold coin. by the United States Mint.
The most expensive US coin ever sold, worth $ 10 million, was the 1794 US $ 1 silver dollar “Flowing Hair” said to be among the earliest minted in the fledgling United States.
The 1822 half-eagle $ 5 coin came from the D. Brent Pogue collection and the buyer chose to remain anonymous, said Jarrod Holland, auction spokesman for Stack’s Bowers Galleries Las Vegas, which organized the members-only sale.
Brett Charville, president of Professional Coin Grading Service in Santa Ana, California, said he rated the coin AU50, or Nearly Uncirculated.
Two other $ 5 gold pieces of half an eagle from 1822 are permanently in the hands of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Numismatic Collection, Holland said. The half eagle was purchased by a collector in 1899, sold in 1945, and purchased by Pogue in 1982.
The price exceeded the $ 6.6 million paid in 2002 for a 1933 double eagle, according to the United States Mint.
– .
