One of the first coins minted in Colonial New England, which was recently found among other coins in a candy tin, has sold at auction for more than $350,000, more than it was expected to get, the auctioneer said Friday.
The one shilling silver coin made in Boston in 1652 – considered the finest example of just a few dozen such coins known to still exist – was sold to an anonymous online bidder from the US, London-based Morton & Eden Ltd. said in a statement.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
The auctioneer had expected it to sell for about $300,000.
"I am not surprised at the amount of interest this exceptional coin attracted," coin specialist James Morton said in a statement. "The price paid, which was above estimate, reflects its extraordinary historic significance and outstanding original state of preservation."
Before 1652, coins from England, the Netherlands, the Spanish Empire and other nations were used as currency in New England.
The simple coin has the initials NE for New England on one side, and the Roman numeral XII, representing the 12 pennies in a shilling, on the other.
The coin was consigned for auction by Wentworth "Wenty" Beaumont, whose father found it recently in a candy tin containing hundreds of old coins in his study at his family's estate in England.
