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BOSTON (AP) — One particular of the initially cash minted in Colonial New England, which was just lately uncovered amid other coins in a sweet tin, has bought at auction for extra than $350,000, additional than it was anticipated to get, the auctioneer explained Friday.
The a single shilling silver coin designed in Boston in 1652 — considered the greatest instance of just a couple of dozen these types of coins acknowledged to however exist — was bought to an anonymous on the internet bidder from the U.S., London-based mostly Morton & Eden Ltd. said in a statement.
The auctioneer experienced predicted it to sell for about $300,000.
“I am not astonished at the amount of money of curiosity this extraordinary coin attracted,” coin specialist James Morton reported in a assertion. “The price paid out, which was earlier mentioned estimate, demonstrates its remarkable historic importance and fantastic original point out of preservation.”
Right before 1652, coins from England, the Netherlands, the Spanish Empire and other nations ended up used as forex in New England.
But a lack of coinage prompted the Massachusetts Common Courtroom to appoint John Hull as Boston mintmaster, responsible for generating North America’s first silver cash. The mint, regarded as treasonous by King Charles II, was shut down in 1682, according to the auctioneer.
The easy coin has the initials NE for New England on just one facet, and the Roman numeral XII, symbolizing the 12 pennies in a shilling, on the other.
The coin was consigned for auction by Wentworth “Wenty” Beaumont, whose father located it recently in a candy tin that contains hundreds of old cash in his review at his family’s estate in England.
Beaumont is a descendant of William Wentworth, an early settler of New England. The Wentworths grew to become 1 of the most popular families in New Hampshire.
Beaumont speculated that an ancestor brought the coin to the U.K. from the colonies.
Many other exceptional American cash were also marketed at the auction, including a pair of 1776 pewter dollars that fetched almost $80,000 every single, and a Libertas Americana bronze medal that got additional than $17,000.
