SUNNYVALE, CA, USA -- Steven L. Contursi, who has owned a mint-condition 1794 Liberty dollar for the past seven years, confirmed Thursday that he sold it to the Cardinal Collection Educational Foundation of Sunnyvale for $7.85 million - setting the new world record for the Most Expensive Coin.
The Neil/Carter/Contursi specimen 1794 Flowing Hair dollar, the World's Most Expensive Coin, graded PCGS SP66.
Photo: Rare Coin Wholesalers
Graded PCGS Specimen-66, it is the finest known 1794 dollar and believed by several prominent experts to be the first silver dollar ever struck by the United States Mint.
The coin was sold by Steven L. Contursi, President of Rare Coin Wholesalers of Irvine, California, to the nonprofit Cardinal Collection Educational Foundation (CCEF) in Sunnyvale, California.
Collector and numismatic researcher Martin Logies represented the foundation of which he is a director and its numismatic curator.
The private sale was brokered by Greg Roberts, President and Chief Executive Officer of Spectrum Group International of Irvine, California.
The previous world record for the Most Expensive Coin was $7.59 million for a U.S.-minted 1933 $20 gold piece, according to the American Numismatic Association.
The silver dollar is among the first ever made and one of about 150 still in existance.
This isn't the first time the Cardinal Collection Educational Foundation has paid big bucks for a coin. In 2007, it spent $1.5 million for the oddly named half-dime minted in the late 1700s.
The 1794 Liberty dollar, the Most Expensive Coin in The World.
Photo: Rare Coin Wholesalers
That being the case, the price it fetched was not surprising, said professional coin grader David Hall.
"Even if it looks like it's been run over by a truck it would still be worth a hundred grand," he said.
Part of the so-called flowing-hair silver dollars, the coin has a portrait of Lady Liberty with long, straight hair on the front and a noticeably skinny American eagle on the back.
"That's the type of piece that is available maybe once in a lifetime," said Martin Logies, curator of the Cardinal Collection, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving rare coins and educating the public about them. He said the foundation plans to put the coin on display, just as Contursi did much of the time he owned it.
Numismatic experts say the 1794 Liberty dollar, the Most Expensive Coin in The World was among the first U.S. silver dollars ever made.