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Famous Coins

Coins have been used as currency since the time of the ancient Greeks. But in the ensuing centuries, coins have become valuable and famous, not just because of their face value, but because of their designs, rarity and prestige. Coin collectors have driven the value of a select few rare and valuable coins into the millions of dollars.
  1. Krugerrands

    • The Krugerrand has an antelope on one side and a profile of South African president Paul Kruger on the other.

      The Krugerrand is a gold coin produced in South Africa that weighs just over 1 troy ounce of gold. The coin was created in 1967 to stimulate the private ownership of South African gold, but the Krugerrand didn't truly become famous (or infamous) until the 1970s and 1980s, when sanctions against South Africa made it illegal to import into many countries. Its popularity continued and actually prompted other countries to mint their own gold coins, reports Northwest Territorial Mint.

    Flowing Hair Dollar (1794)

    • The Flowing Hair Dollar is not only the first dollar coin produced by the United States government, but it is also the most valuable coin in collecting. The fame of the coin, which features the bust of Liberty with flowing hair on it, comes from its rarity. The first run of the coins in 1794 were of poor quality, so less than 2,000 were made, according to Coin Resource. The following year, more than 150,000 of the same design were made. One of the coins from 1794 sold for $7.85 million in 2010, the highest selling price of any coin in history.

    Double Eagle (1933)

    • The 1933 Double Eagle, which was originally meant to be a 20-dollar gold coin, was minted in mass quantities, but now the coin is so rare that one of them was sold at auction for $7.5 million, according to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. What happened? When the government discontinued the domestic gold standard in 1933, none of the Double Eagles made were circulated, and most were melted down. Some survived, finding their way into rare collections, including the coin that sold for the second-highest total in collecting history in 2002.

    $1 Million Canadian Gold Coin

    • In 2007, the Royal Canadian Mint offered a limited edition of 220-pound gold coins with a face value of $1 million Canadian. The coins were created to promote the purchase of 1-ounce coins made at the same mint. The coins were said to be the most pure gold coins ever made, at 99.999 percent purity and were nearly the size of a manhole cover, 21 inches across and 1.2 inches thick, according to an article on Reuters news service.


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