A 1652 Threepence From Boston’s Illicit Inaugural Mint Just Sold for $2.5 Million, Making It the Most Valuable Non-Gold U.S. Coin Ever

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A nickel-sized coin comprising only $1.03 worth of silver just sold for $2,520,000, making it the most expensive piece of American currency predating the Revolution, and the most valuable non-gold U.S. coin struck before the 1792 founding of the United States Mint. It’s also the first time that a 1652 threepence piece from Boston’s illicit inaugural mint has ever gone up for grabs.

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Stack’s Bowers Galleries auctioned this rare specimen off amongst their Numismatic Americana & Early American Coins sale in Costa Mesa, CA yesterday. Several collectors competed over this seminal souvenir of American revolt, struck 124 years before the Declaration of Independence.

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England wanted its colonies to remain dependent on its own coinage, and curtailed the currency entering America. In response, the General Court of Massachusetts Bay ordered the creation of a Boston Mint in 1652, and elected silversmith John Hull to oversee it. Bostonians brought counterfeit coins, silverware, and more to be smithed. Hull took a percentage of each ounce converted into coins, and Americans turned their silver into cash. The Crown, still recovering from the English Civil War, only got wise to the operation in 1660.

This 1652 threepence was in production between May and October 1652, when the General Court mandated a new design to stop thieves from stealing slivers of these coins, thereby reducing their literal value. Of the three coins the Hull Mint made within this period—including the shilling, the sixpence, and the threepence—the latter remains the rarest. It was the smallest denomination on offer, but took the same amount of effort as the other two, rendering it tedious and less valuable to Hull, who was paid by the ounce. By comparison, two 1652 shillings also appeared in last night sale, hammering at $60,000 and $192,000.

The coin, with the Roman numeral indicating its denomination up top. Image: Stack’s Bowers.

Before this 1652 threepence surfaced, only two examples had ever been known. New England historian William Sumner Appleton bequeathed one to the New England Historical society in 1903. This new copy is purportedly in better condition. Another example lived at Yale until it was stolen in the 1960s. That coin has not been recovered.

Last night’s specimen originally emerged from an old cabinet in a Netherlands residence in 2016. It was found in a now-lost pasteboard box inscribed “Silver token unknown / From Quincy Family / B. Ma. Dec. 1798” in an “early 19th century hand,” the lot explains. The PCGS verified the coin in 2020.

American coins quickly became a European novelty. Based on the lost box’s inscription and surviving letters from the early 1780s, this surprising specimen likely arrived on the continent via John Adams, who served as American ambassador to the Netherlands before becoming America’s second president. Adams was married to Abigail Adams, a descendant of the illustrious Quincys, whose great grandfather was step brothers with Hull.

Yesterday marks the 58th time Bower’s Stacks sold a coin for more than a million. Over email, Stack’s Bowers EVP Christine Karstedt told me their house has noticed an uptick in such sales, “as the U.S. market continues to see strong growth and other markets begin to mature.”

“Regarding this coin,” she added, “there are no rumors of additional specimens.”