The price of history is half a million dollars, and you can buy it next week in Denver.
A coin and money convention, including an auction for rare currency, will hit Denver’s Colorado Convention Center .
The , sponsored by the Colorado Springs-based American Numismatic association, will host more than $1 billion of valuable currency.
The general public can view the rare coins and bills, including examples of currency with some sort of mistake, known as “funny money,” and learn about the history of coins through educational seminars.
Free appraisals will be available by numismatic experts, and more than 500 dealers will buy and sell rare coins at the convention.
The auction will feature a , the first penny manufactured in the U.S. It contains 264 grains of copper because the government wanted it to be worth exactly 1/100 of a dollar – but it made it about the size of a half dollar. The coins were never circulated.
Heritage Auctions, the organization selling the piece for an English coin collector who found it, sold another Birch cent a few years ago . David Stone, a U.S. coin cataloger for Heritage Auctions, said he expects this one to go for only $500,000 because it is not in as good of condition.
Stone said it is unknown how many of these first pennies were manufactured, but about a dozen are known to exist today. The one at the Denver auction was last seen in 1890 but recently turned up in England with a coin dealer.
“We thought we knew where it was before, but we were wrong,” Stone said. “This one was hidden for all those years.”
Other notable coins at the auction will be experimental pennies made from plastic, glass or zinc-covered steel – prototypes to show to Congress for consideration during World War II when they were short on copper due to the manufacturing of shell casings and other war necessities. One of these experimental coins sold for $70,000 last year, Stone said.
For a single year, 1943, an alternative penny was manufactured with zinc-coated steel. But during that period was made and a few copper cents got through because the metal was still left in the minting machines. One of these mix-ups will be at the auction as well. Its auction estimate is $160,000, but Stone said he expects it to go for twice that price.
Stone said most collectors are high-profile business executives with lots of money – but also an interest in history.
“Itap kind of fascinating,” Stone said about coin collecting. “Itap a physical link to the past. Maybe George Washington held this coin at one time. Our whole money system came from these coins, and it wasn’t a simple process. Itap just a really good story.”
Some of the coins with good stories to hit the Denver auction market are ancient currency.
“A lot of the things we know about ancient civilizations — the things that are left to tell us about them – are from the coins they issued,” Stone said. “You can tell what someone from 1,000 years ago looked like from a coin.”
Though coins might have historical significance, there are some advocates for eliminating the penny from circulation altogether. They argue that it costs more to produce than it is worth. attempted to move away from the penny, but never got through Congress.
But, for a coin collector like Stone, the penny is nostalgic.
“Itap probably inevitable someday, but I don’t think that day is here yet,” Stone said. “I think people are too attached to let it go now. I think we’ll see it for the foreseeable future.”
If you go: The World’s Fair of Money runs Aug. 1-5 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. Admission is $8 for adults, Tuesday to Friday and free for all on Saturday. Admission is free for kids under 12 for the entire show. Live auctions will take place in Denver Aug. 2-4, and an online-only auction takes place Aug. 6 on .
