Prototype Coins Go for $30M

An anonymous buyer spent more than $30 million on a collection of about 1,000 coins that never made it to circulation, the AP reports. The rare “pattern coins,” dated from 1792 to 1942, are trial designs the US Mint rejected before producing them for circulation. Those coins generally stay in the hands of the Mint, making a collection this large very valuable.

Included in the lot are test designs for the first pennies made in 1792 and coins from the 1800s with depictions of an "Amazonian"  woman representing liberty. The seller asked to stay anonymous, and the buyer is identified only as “Mr. Simpson, a Western states collector.” The dealer who brokered the sale says it took the seller around 10 years to assemble the collection. (More coins stories.)