An American Silver Coin From Before the American Revolution That Was Recovered in an Old Cabinet in Amsterdam Sold for $2.52 Million at an Auction, Decimating the Previous Record

The threepence coin was made in 1652 in Boston, mere weeks after the first mint was set up in the colony

An American silver coin from before the Revolutionary War that was found in an old cabinet in Amsterdam sold for $2.52 million at an auction, smashing the previous record.

The threepence coin was minted in 1652 in Boston, just weeks after the first mint was established in the colony, according to a statement from Stack’s Bowers Galleries, the auction house behind the sale.

The coin was originally discovered in the Netherlands in 2016, concealed in a pasteboard box that was inscribed with the following message: "Silver token unknown / From Quincy Family / B. Ma. Dec, 1798." The owner was unaware that he had stumbled upon a piece of American history.

After undergoing extensive testing and analysis to verify its authenticity, the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS), an independent body that grades coins, determined that the coin was genuine.

Threepence coins from the Boston Mint are highly prized, as only one other has ever been recovered. The other surviving coin is housed in a collection at the Massachusetts Historical Society. As a result, the discovery sent shockwaves through the coin-collecting community and prompted many to dig deep into their savings for a chance to own the coveted coin.

The coin is easily identifiable by the NE marking, which stands for New England, on one side and the Roman numerals denoting its value on the other. The threepence coin had three Roman numeral markings, hence the name.

According to the Massachusetts Historical Society, workers at the Boston Mint quickly began to resist British authority to produce coins, reflecting the colony’s "growing sense of identity as separate from the mother country and its determination to regulate its own economy."

This rebellion also meant that coins with the NE marking and Roman numerals were likely only produced for a few months, leaving very few in existence today.

In 1781, English collector Thomas Brand Hollis wrote to John Adams, who was then serving as the American ambassador to the Netherlands, seeking assistance in locating one of the Boston Mint coins.

Adams subsequently enlisted the help of his wife, Abigail, as her great-grandfather was stepbrothers with John Hull, the silversmith who minted the coins at the time.

This year has seen a string of expensive new windfalls for the coin-collecting community. In October, a rare misprinted US coin was sold for $500,000.

Later in November, a family discovered that their gold coin collection was valued at an astonishing $2 million. They had initially suspected that it couldn’t be sold for more than $100,000.