Rare U.S. Silver Dollar Sells for Record-breaking $10 Million

An extremely rare silver dollar from 1794 was sold for $10 million at an auction on Thursday, the Huffington Post reported. The Flowing Hair Silver Dollar coin, which many believe was from the first batch of coins struck by the U.S. mint, brought in more than twice the previous record.

The exact price of the history-making coin was $10,016,875, illustrating the significant appreciation that can be realized by acquiring the right portfolio of coins.

The record-setting coin shows a profile of Miss Liberty facing right surrounded by stars representing each state in the union. The design was only used in 1794 and briefly the following year.

After the sale was complete, the coin’s buyers, a rare-coin firm in New Jersey named Legend Numismatics issued a press release affirming that they had been prepared to spend significantly more to acquire this specific rare U.S. coin.

"We felt in our heart that this would be the very first coin to exceed the $10 million barrier in auction and were in fact prepared to bid much high in order to acquire this unique piece of history," stated the release. The company also affirmed that it had no intention of selling the coin in the near future.

Rare coins from before 1933 have much more history attached to them and are often the coins that are likely to realize such extraordinary appreciation events. Due to their implicit rarity, historical properties, and even sometimes their atheistic beauty, international coin collectors seek them out and pay a premium when they are made available.

This $10 million dollar coin is the perfect example of how a rare coin can appreciate in value rapidly over a very short period.

"It is the first American metal dollar struck and the finest known,” said David Bowers, chairman emeritus of Stack's Bowers Galleries. “You have these combinations coming together. No museum has an equal piece."

Bowers said coins are a good investment, have a worldwide market and have risen steadily in value. He stated that coins investors were already experiencing a great year before the sale, and that 2013 would be another good year for the several million coin collectors around the planet.

"They want to collect coins for appreciation, art, rarity and beauty," he explained.

The record-breaking coin was part of a group of coins known as the Cardinal Collection. Bowers described the collection, amassed by the collector Martin Logies, as the "Old Masters" of coins struck during the earliest years of the U.S. Mint.

Another coin in the 94 lots sold that night was the 1792 Half Dime, which dates back to David Rittenhouse, the first director of the U.S. Mint. It fetched $975,000, excluding the 17.5 percent buyer's commission.