A REMARKABLE coin has sold at auction for $10,800 thanks to its historical significance

Both the date on the coin's obverse and Benjamin Franklin's role in its design contribute to its value.

A REMARKABLE coin has sold at auction for $10,800 thanks to its historical significance.

Both the date on the coin's obverse and Benjamin Franklin's role in its design contribute to its value.

The Libertas Americana medal is highly valued among collectors thanks to its rich historical significance, rarity, and connection to the founding of the US.

It is one of the most famous and praised of all the medals relating to American history.

One such coin sold for $10,800 via Heritage Auctions on November 25, 2024.

Benjamin Franklin, while serving as an American diplomat in France, is credited with creating the design for the Libertas Americana medal.

He intended for the medal to celebrate American independence during the Revolutionary War and commemorate key military victories at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781.

The coin's obverse depicts Lady Liberty with a cap and pole, which symbolizes freedom.

The design was later featured on US half cents and large cents.

The year 1776 is also engraved on the Libertas Americana medal's obverse to mark the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the US.

The coin's reverse shows a scene of France as Minerva defending the US, depicted as an infant, against the British lion.

"This puts me in mind of a medal I have had a mind to strike... representing the United States by the figure of an infant Hercules in his cradle, strangling the two serpents; and France by that of Minerva, sitting by as his nurse, with her spear and helmet, and her robe specked by a few 'fleurs-de-lis,'" Franklin wrote in a March 1782 letter to Robert Livingston, US secretary for foreign affairs.

Augustin Dupré, a renowned French medalist, engraved the design, and it was struck at the Paris Mint.

The Libertas Americana medal is considered a "Holy Grail" item in the American coin space, consistently driving high auction prices.

In addition to the medal's historical significance, its pristine condition contributed to its high price tag.

It was certified by NGC, or Numismatic Guaranty Corporation, as uncirculated, which is highly desirable for collectors.

Another rare coin sold for $2.52 million in a record-breaking auction.

Some of the rarest and hardest-to-find coins are from the pre-Federal era, which refers to the time before the US Mint was established in 1792.

One of the rarest of the pre-federal coins is the 1652 NE Threepence, one of which sold on November 18 for over $2.5 million.

Coin experts called it the "most significant numismatic discovery in generations."

Rare coins

You may be holding something valuable in your wallet. Check out these articles on rare coins to see if you may have a treasure hidden deep in your pockets.

Until 2024, only one of these coins was known to have been discovered and sold at auction — and that was 150 years ago.

The coin's value was increased by the signature "NE" for New England stamped at the top of the obverse and the Roman numeral three engraved in the same spot on the reverse.

These historic details link the coin to Hull and Sanderson's mint in Boston, Massachusetts, and confirm the period it was produced, despite the absence of a date stamp.

Check out these other rare coins.

Three sisters sold a rare dime with a missing mint mark for $500,000 after it was locked in a family vault for emergencies.

Plus, read up on the four rare nickels worth up to $3.7 million.