Rare coin found in piece of furniture sells for $2.52M at auction

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the year the coin was made.

(NEXSTAR) – A rare 17th Century coin sold at auction for a record-breaking $2.52 million eight years after it was found in an old cabinet in Amsterdam.

The 1652 New England threepence, which is about the size of a nickel, was struck in Boston and found over three centuries later, inside an old cabinet in Amsterdam around 2016, according to a news release Monday from Stack's Bowers Galleries, which handled the auction. The owner had no idea how valuable the discovery was for several years until he decided to thoroughly research the small, worn disk with three Roman numerals on one side and "NE" on the other.

(Credit: Stack's Bowers Galleries)
(Credit: Stack's Bowers Galleries)

Weighing just 1.1 grams, the value in silver was just $1.03 as of Monday's market, but its rarity and rich history raised the price to a new record for any non-gold U.S. coin struck before the founding of the United States Mint, according to the gallery. The previous record was $646,250.

The threepence coin is thought to have come from the politically powerful Quincy family of Boston, which included the first lady of the United States, Abigail Adams, wife of President John Adams. Before serving as the second president of the United States, John Adams was also the fledgling country's first ambassador to The Netherlands.

New England threepence coins are exceedingly rare – the only other known example has been in the care of the Massachusetts Historical Society for 120 years.

“This is one of the most important coins in all of American numismatics,” Professional Coin Grading Service President Stephanie Sabin told Coin World. “Since before the Civil War, collectors have regarded the 1652 New England threepence as the single-rarest American colonial coin. And for more than a century it’s been known as entirely unobtainable for private collectors.

The bidding war for the coin, which reached a price three times higher than initial projections, was "an exhilarating ride," according to auctioneer Ben Orooji, who called the 12-minute contest "a career highlight."