When it comes to the value of coins, it’s always wise to get a second opinion. One New England resident found this to be true when it turned out that the coin in his possession wasn’t a fake after all, as originally suspected. In fact, he is well on his way to becoming a millionaire now that the coin has been identified as an original.
The anonymous collector had, what he believed, to be a mere replica of a $5 gold coin produced at the height of the California Gold Rush in 1854 by the San Francisco Mint.
Many coin dealers shared his beliefs because out of the 268 Liberty Head Half Eagles that were produced, only three were known to have officially survived to this day.
The collector brought his coin to a coin authentication company, the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC), for a second opinion. The experts there confirmed that the coin is indeed an original, making it the 4th survivor.
NGC chairman Mark Salzberg declared that this finding is the discovery of a lifetime.
One of the other three known coins had been stolen in 1968, so experts had to make sure that this new discovery was not in fact the same stolen coin that had never been recovered.
Experts also had to ensure it was not one of the three coins known to already be in existence, after one was stolen in 1968 from the Du Pont family – one of the wealthiest families in America – and never recovered.
According to Richard Beale, an auction valuer at Warick & Warick, the coin is now likely to be worth over a million dollars. He also stated that the last one that had been sold in 1982 went for $170,000, but today would be worth much more at auction.
If you have an old coin collection sitting around, maybe something you inherited from a relative, or just something you have developed as a hobby over the years, it never hurts to get an appraisal or second opinion. A knowledgeable coin expert may reveal the true value of a potential gold mine you could be sitting on!