Continental greenback from 1776 sells at British public sale for over $32,000

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A rare half-shekel silver coin from Year One of the First Jewish Revolt against the Romans, was discovered in the Judean Desert (Credit: Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority)

An auction house in the United Kingdom recently sold one of America’s oldest coins for a hefty price.

The coin, which was found at the bottom of a toffee tin, went under the hammer on Oct. 3. The artifact was sold by Wotton Auction Rooms, an auction house based in the Cotswolds.

The coin is a Continental Currency dollar that was minted in 1776, making it one of the United States’ earliest coins. It sold for 25,000 pounds – equal to over $32,000 American dollars.

The outer layer of the pewter coin reads “Continental Currency 1776,” and was designed by Benjamin Franklin. The center of the coin depicts the Sun and a sundial, along with the words: “Mind your business.”

A rare Continental dollar coin from 1776 sold for an eye-popping sum after being found in an old tin. (iStock / SWNS)

According to Wotton Auction Rooms’ website, the coin was “forgotten about” and found in a tin with a number of other trinkets.

“This example is understood to be totally fresh to the market, having been recently discovered in a local property, unearthed from an old toffee tin containing a collection of jewellery, objet d’art and curiosities, believed to have been sealed and essentially forgotten about for decades,” the site describes.

Auctioneer Joseph Trinder told SWNS that only 6,000 of the coins were minted at the time. He predicts that roughly one hundred 1776 Continental dollars are still around today.

The 1776 continental dollar sold for over $32,000. (SWNS)

“This coin represents a discovery that is in the top five of my career to date, and the sort of thing every auctioneer up and down the country hopes they’ll find,” he remarked.

The antiques specialist added that the coin was recently shipped to the United States to be authenticated. After a series of tests, experts determined that it was indeed genuine.

“It was examined by a committee of specialists and X-rayed and put through other scientific tests, and we were delighted to receive a notification to tell us that it is genuine,” Trinder explained to SWNS in September.

“To think this is a coin that dates back to the year of [America’s] independence, and to have it found in the U.K., is unique,” he added.