<i>$1 million for a penny</i>
One of the first pennies ever produced by the US Mint has reportedly been sold for more than $1 million.
Bids for the 1792 Silver Centre penny reached $1.15 million on Thursday night, according to Heritage Auctions, which conducted the sale. The US Mint itself was founded in April, 1792.
The Canadian Mint recently began selling a limited-edition glow-in-the-dark quarter featuring a dinosaur skeleton for around $30.
ABC News reports that the rare penny is made of copper with a small silver plug at its centre. It was an experiment by the then-fledgling US Mint, which shelved the penny before it could go into mass circulation. The US Mint determined the penny was too large and heavy for practical use.
Todd Imhof at Heritage Auctions said the copper-silver penny reads "Liberty Parent of Science & Industry”. "With collectible items, for an item to sell for over a million dollars it is an unusual event," he said.
"At the time, industry and science reflected an enlightenment mindset," he said. "People believed freedom of thought and industrial growth would bind and unify the new country, not religion or God."
An anonymous collector who has owned the coin for 10 years sold the penny.
However, Imhof said a coin of the same type sold for close to $3 million over a year ago. Still, the $1.15 million sale is one of only 30 $1 million-plus coin sales in history.
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