SOLD FOR £6,744,675

‘The World’s Most Famous Coin’ is now ‘The World’s Most Valuable Gold Coin’ after it sold for a record $9,360,000 at a public auction of important US coins held by Heritage Auctions. The 1787 gold coin is said to be the finest of the seven specimens known to exist. The doubloon is the finest example of its kind and the sale marked only the third time the coin has been auctioned since 1848. Officially titled the ‘1787 New York-style Brasher Doubloon, W-5840, NGC MS65’, it is known as ‘The World’s Most Famous Coin.’ Brasher Doubloons have been popularised in detective novels and motion pictures, such as The High Window by Raymond Chandler, and the feature film The Brasher Doubloon (20th Century Fox, 1946). The auction house explained: ‘To the average American citizen, the Brasher Doubloon is the archetype of a rare and valuable coin and enjoys a lofty status in pop culture that is unapproached by any other coin.’ According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the previous auction record for a gold coin was $7.59 million for a 1933 $20 Double Eagle, which was sold in 2002 in New York.

Banknotes sold well at the Tennant’s sale, with highlights including a lot of three Jersey banknotes dating from the German Occupation of the Island from 1941-1942. Consisting of a two shillings note, a one shilling and a 6 pence note, the lot sold for £220. These notes were issued due to a shortage of coinage in Jersey, exacerbated by occupying German troops returning home with coins as souvenirs. New emergency notes were introduced by the States of Jersey, designed by Edmund Blampied. The 6 pence note was designed with an outsized ‘X’ in the word Six on the reverse of the note; when folded, the ‘X’ appeared as the resistance symbol ‘V’ for Victory.