American Colonists Minted This Humble Silver Coin in 1652. It Just Sold for $2.52 Million

In 1652, British settlers in America defied their royal overlords by setting up a mint in Boston. The colonists began producing coins, a decision that symbolized New England’s “growing sense of identity as separate from the mother country and its determination to regulate its own economy without British interference,” according to the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Now, one of those rare, rebellious coins has sold for a record-setting $2.52 million.

The silver threepence was made in Boston just a few weeks after the colonial mint opened in 1652—and more than a century before the Thirteen Colonies declared their independence from Britain.

One side of the coin bears a simple “NE” stamp to signify New England. The other side denotes its value in Roman numerals. It weighs just 1.1 grams, giving it a silver melt value of just $1.03.

The Boston mint likely only made coins in this style for a few months. Most have been lost to history, so private collectors rarely have an opportunity to buy one.

During a Stack’s Bowers Galleries auction on November 19, collectors engaged in a fierce, 12-minute bidding war for the coin. It was “an exhilarating ride and a career highlight,” says Ben Orooji, a numismatist at the auction house, in a statement.

Undated (1652) NE Threepence. Noe 1-A, Salmon 1-A, W-1. Rarity-8. EF-45 (PCGS). CMQ-X.

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Per the statement, the coin’s $2.52 million sale price set a new world record for an American coin made before the American Revolution. (The previous record holder sold for $646,250.) It also set a record for a non-gold United States coin struck before the founding of the U.S. Mint.

The coin was discovered in a cabinet in the Netherlands in 2016, the auction house says in a separate statement. It was found in a pasteboard box with a note that read: “Silver token unknown / From Quincy Family / B. Ma. Dec, 1798,” reports CNN’s Issy Ronald.

Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS), a company that grades rare coins, conducted extensive research and testing to learn more about the coin, which is about the size of a nickel. They confirmed its ties to the Quincy family, which included first lady Abigail Adams.

“This is one of the most important coins in all of American numismatics,” Stephanie Sabin, president of PCGS, told Numismatic News’ Richard Giedroyc ahead of the auction. “The discovery of this outstanding specimen, tracing back to Boston’s historic Quincy family, means this national treasure is available for ownership by private numismatists for the first time in generations.”

In 1781, English coin collector Thomas Brand Hollis asked future president John Adams, then the American ambassador to the Netherlands, if he could help him acquire coins minted in New England. Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, and asked her to ship him “a few of the New England shillings. Pray send me half a dozen if you can procure them by different occasions.”

It’s not clear if the recently auctioned threepence was among those Adams sent across the Atlantic Ocean, but “the connection appears likely,” according to the auction house.

Historians know the location of just one other New England threepence. It’s been in the Massachusetts Historical Society’s collection for the past 120 years, but it has a hole in it.

Yale University used to have one in its collection, but that coin was lost sometime before the middle of the 20th century.

The Boston Mint was run by two settlers, John Hull and Robert Sanderson. (Abigail’s great-grandfather was Hull’s stepbrother.) Boston authorities permitted Hull and Sanderson to set up the facility because the commercially successfully Massachusetts Bay Colony needed cash.

“An inadequate supply of money put [the colony’s] future development in jeopardy,” notes the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. “England was not inclined to send gold and silver coins to the colonies, for they were in short supply in the mother country.”

In addition to silver threepences, the Boston mint also made sixpences and shillings in four different designs between 1652 and 1682. The coins were used as currency not just in Massachusetts, but throughout the Northeast. The most famous and abundant are the pine tree shillings, which featured the image of one of the colony’s biggest exports: pine lumber for ships.

All of the coins made at the mint bore the same year, 1652, even if they were made later. Why? That year was in the middle of the Interregnum, a period when Britain was a republic without a king.

“In theory, these colonists had no right to strike their own coins, no matter how great their need,” the museum states. “The people in Massachusetts may have cleverly decided to put that date on their coinage so that they could deny any illegality when and if the monarchy were re-established.”

Eventually, the monarchy was re-established, with Charles II becoming king in 1660. The mint closed in 1682 “after closer royal scrutiny of the operation,” according to the museum.

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.