A rare Colonial Massachusetts silver coin found by an East Hampton woman in an old potato field almost 23 years ago was auctioned for more than $430,000 last week in Baltimore.
The 1652 New England sixpence had been off the market in a private collection for 21 years and was expected to sell for $100,000, but was resold for four times that price, auction officials said.
"We knew it was a very rare coin and we knew it would reach six figures," said Lawrence R. Stack, a senior numismatic consultant for Stack's Bowers Galleries, a Manhattan rare coin dealer and auction house. "And it brought in $431,250, so I guess we did well."
The auction took place at the Colonial Coin Collectors Club annual convention in Baltimore, where there were more than 200 bidders in the room, Stack said. The 360-year-old coin, one of only eight known to exist, was first auctioned for the woman who found it in 1992 by Sotheby's in Manhattan and purchased by Stack's for $35,200.
Stack's then sold it to John "Jack" Royse, 86, who decided a few months ago to put the coin up for sale, along with 102 others, because he wanted to "see them in the right hands" before he died, Stack said. The buyer is a collector who prefers to remain anonymous, Stack said.
