Friday, 5th October 2007 (3147 views)

A rare gold coin, one of four surviving coins of its type, was bought for $5 million (£2.45 million) this week, the largest purchase price ever recorded for a US gold $10 coin, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Struck in 1834 at the Philadelphia Mint, the Eagle gold coin is actually dated 1804 and was specially ordered for US president Andrew Jackson to give as a diplomatic gift during Asian trade missions.

"It is one of the rare US coins out there. They are neat pieces in that in one sense they are not really a coin made in 1804, even though it is dated 1804 ... it is sort of a created coin," Douglas Mudd, curator of the American Numismatic Association Museum, told AP.

The purchase puts the gold piece in a tie for the second-most valuable rare coin in the word with a 1913 nickel that was sold earlier in 2007.

A 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle gold coin currently holds the record for the most expensive gold coin, selling for $7.59 million to an anonymous collector at a 2002 auction.

According to Great Southern Coins, the $10 Eagle coin sets the fineness and weight standards of coins of other denominations.

 

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