1793 penny fetches $1.38M at Florida auction

A once-cent copper coin from the earliest days of the US Mint in 1793 has sold for a record $1.38 million in an auction during the coin show and annual convention of the Florida United Numismatists at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. The sale of the 1793 penny is considered as one of the biggest deals at the coin show, according to reports on Sunday, January 8, 2012.

The 1793 penny, a copper minted coin, was produced during the first year of coin production in the United States. The penny was able to get a good price because it is rare, its lettering and Lady Liberty face and the chain of 13 linking rings on its back were still in good shape.

James Halperin of Texas-based Heritage Auctions told that the sale was "the most a United States copper coin has ever sold for at auction." The coin was made at the Mint in Philadelphia in 1793, the first year that the US made its own coins.

Heritage officials said in a news release that the name of the buyer was not revealed but that he was "a major collector." One of the coin's earliest owners was a well-known Baltimore banker, Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr.

This undated photo provided by Heritage Auctions shows the front and back of one …

"Mr. Eliasberg was nicknamed, 'the king of coins' because before his death in 1976 he assembled a collection that consisted of at least one example of every coin ever made at the United States Mint, a feat never duplicated," Halperin said in the news release.

The final bid for the coin was one of the largest sales at the Florida United Numismatists coin show and annual convention. Halperin said a five-dollar gold piece from 1829  was also sold.

Halperin said there remain a few hundred 1793 coins in different condition, but that the one auctioned off Wednesday night is rare because it wasn't in circulation.

Officials say it shows no wear on its lettering, its Lady Liberty face or the chain of linking rings on its back. The news release said the coin is known as a "Chain Cent" because its chain of linking rings was supposed to represent the solidarity of the states. The design was changed to a wreath after some critics claimed it was symbolic of slavery.

Halperin said the auction had more than $64 million in transactions. 

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Reports say that almost 600 dealers of coins and currency joined the Orlando, Florida coin show. The Florida coin show features Buffalo nickels, silver one-ounce pieces and coins from antiquity, misprinted cash, Confederate notes and several foreign currency.

Dealers are selling, appraising and buying coins from visitors during the coin show.