The trans-Atlantic journey of a pre-Revolutionary US coin ended this week in a category-record-breaking sale of $2.5 million in California.
The coin is a silver threepence, struck in 1652 in Boston. It is one of only two surviving examples of its type, and the only one available to private collectors.
It was sold, after what auctioneers Stacks Bowers described as an “intense” 12-minute bidding battle, for a record price for a non-gold US coin from before the foundation of the United States mint.
The very plain coin was a mystery when it was discovered in a cabinet in Amsterdam in 2016.
The “NE” marks the coin as struck in the North American colony of New England.
On the other side the numerals III mark it out as a threepence.
It was minted by John Hull and Robert Sanderson at their mint in Boston.
Stacks Bowers describe the 20.2mm by 21.3mm coin as “the greatest rarity of all pre-Federal coins, the most significant numismatic discovery in generations.”
The coin’s new owner is now the only private collector in the world who can complete a collection of Massachusetts silver coins.
Although still under British crown rule, in 1652 the General Court of Massachusetts Bay set up their own mint in order to provide a supply of coins to counter a growing problem with counterfeits.
The mint used deposited silver to produce shillings, sixpences, and threepences. The coins were all simple, and the mint’s main input was to assay (quality test) the silver.
A later shilling from the Hull and Sanderson mint from the Metropolitan Museum’s collections. All of Hull and Sanderson’s coins are rare and sought after, and are considered the first US coins.
The higher the face value of the coin, the easier they were to produce.
And, within a few months, new laws were passed that changed the design of the coins, leaving a probable window for minting NE coins of just a few months.
As a result, there are only 70 known shillings, seven known sixpences, and two threepences.
The first threepence was owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society, to which it was bequeathed in 1903.
Another was held at Yale College, but was stolen from them some time before a major theft in the 1950s prompted a stock take. It has never been recovered.
This coin was discovered in 2016 in Amsterdam.
Comparison with the catalogue records of the Yale coin prove it is a new discovery.
It was found in a Dutch collection in 2016, labeled “Silver token unknown / From Quincy Family / B. Ma. Dec. 1798.”
The Quincy Family is the family of Abigail Adams, the first second lady and second first lady of the United States through her marriage to Founding Father John Adams, and mother of another president.
By 2020 it had been identified and certified.
The coin, which contains silver currently worth around $1, was sold by live, online bidding on November 18.
The market in rare and historic coins has been performing well in recent years. A boost from the enforced limitations on life of the pandemic restrictions has persisted.
In 2021, Stacks Bowers sold an 1822 half eagle coin in 2021 for $8.4 million. The same year they received $7.7 million for an 1804 silver dollar.
Elsewhere, a 1933 Double Eagle ($20) coin, struck just as gold coins were removed from US circulation, realised $18.9 million at auction in 2021.
