1794
silver dollar sells for record $7.85 million By JOHN ROGERS, Associated
Press Writer John Rogers, Associated Press Writer – Thu
May 20, 8:04 pm ET
LOS
ANGELES – What may be America's oldest silver dollar
has become the world's most expensive coin, with its owner
saying it changed hands in a private transaction between coin
collectors for nearly $8 million.
Steven L. Contursi, who has owned the mint-condition
1794 Liberty dollar for the past seven years, confirmed Thursday
that he sold it to the Cardinal Collection Educational Foundation
of Sunnyvale for $7.85 million.
The previous record price paid for a coin
was $7.59 million for a U.S.-minted 1933 $20 gold piece, according
to the American Numismatic Association.
The U.S. began producing silver dollars in
1794, and this particular one remains in near-perfect condition
216 years later.
That being the case, the price it fetched
was not surprising, said professional coin grader David Hall.
"Even if it looks like it's been run
over by a truck it would still be worth a hundred grand,"
he said.
Part of the so-called flowing-hair silver
dollars, the coin has a portrait of Lady Liberty with long,
straight hair on the front and a noticeably skinny American
eagle on the back.
"That's the type of piece that is available
maybe once in a lifetime," said Martin Logies, curator
of the Cardinal Collection, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving
rare coins and educating the public about them. He said the
foundation plans to put the coin on display, just as Contursi
did much of the time he owned it.
Numismatic experts say it was among the first
U.S. silver dollars ever made.
"From the research I've done, it is unquestionably
the earliest struck of all the pieces known to remain in existence,"
said Logies, author of "The Flowing Hair Silver Dollars
of 1794."
Of the approximately 1,750 such dollars produced
that year, only about 150 are known to exist.
The quality of the imprint on this one shows
it was struck on a hand-cranked press from a special piece
of polished, high-quality silver. That indicates it was intended
for either a dignitary or the mint's own private collection,
said Larry Shepherd, executive director of the American Numismatic
Association.
It likely remained in the mint's collection
until the 1800s, Shepherd said, when it was probably traded
to a private collector, something he said the mint sometimes
did in those days.
Contursi acquired this amazing 1794 silver
dollar for an undisclosed sum in 2003. He said he wasn't looking
to sell it until Logies approached him.
The Cardinal Collection curator had been one
of a handful of experts Contursi had allowed to examine the
coin after he bought it. He joked that Logies had had his
eye on it ever since.
"He just finally made me an offer I couldn't
refuse," he laughed.