Oops! Mis-struck 1958 Lincoln cent coin sells for file $1.136 million
IRVINE, Calif. – Who says a penny received’t purchase a lot lately? A 1958-dated Lincoln cent mistakenly made with doubling in some letters of the design has offered for a file $1,136,250. It was owned by a New York Metropolis collector who died quickly after consigning his pristine situation cash to be offered at public sale.
“The million-dollar penny is called a ‘doubled die’ and it’s the most interesting of solely three identified 1958 U.S. cents which have extreme doubling of letters within the motto IN GOD WE TRUST and the phrase LIBERTY on the entrance of the coin,” defined Ian Russell, president of GreatCollections of Irvine, California.
The coin was owned by numismatist and sculptor Stewart Blay of New York who died at age 71 in November. His set of 276 mint-condition Lincoln cents courting again to 1909 with a mixed face worth of solely $2.76 offered for $7,731,811 in a collection of six auctions by GreatCollections that ended on Sunday, January 29, 2023.
A complete of 117 bids have been positioned for the doubled-die 1958 penny. The successful bidder was described by Russell as a complicated collector who wanted this coin to finish his assortment.
Doubled dies happen when the steel die used to make cash is incorrectly struck twice, leading to all cash minted with that die to seem double-struck.
“Along with setting an public sale file for the primary million-dollar Lincoln cent, 13 different superb-condition pennies in Mr. Blay’s painstakingly-assembled assortment offered for file six-figure costs, starting from $120,937 for a 1911 cent to $601,875 for one of many roughly 50 identified doubled die cents made in 1969 on the San Francisco Mint,” stated Russell.
“My brother started gathering cash when he was eight years previous and began assembling the best identified assortment of early Lincoln cents about 50 years in the past,” defined Blay’s sister, Mariette Blay of Oregon. “He was extraordinarily happy with what grew to become often known as the Crimson Copper Assortment and lots of the pennies have been exhibited at coin exhibits.”
“Stewart Blay spent a long time touring the nation, visiting coin outlets and coin exhibits on his quest for the easiest, whereas additionally sharing his information with fellow collectors and sellers,” stated Russell. “He spent his life procuring absolutely the best-of-the-best Lincoln cents and so they have been very nicely acquired by collectors. It could be one other era earlier than these cash seem in the marketplace once more.”
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