DALLAS – “The World’s Most Famous Coin” is now “The World’s Most Valuable Gold Coin” after it sold for a record $9.36 million at a public auction of important United States coins held by Heritage Auctions on Thursday, January 21. The 1787 gold coin is the finest of the mere seven specimens known to exist, and the sale marked just the third time the coin has been auctioned since 1848. Officially titled the “1787 New York-Style Brasher Doubloon, W-5840, NGC MS65,” it is known among numismatics enthusiasts and beyond as “The World’s Most Famous Coin.” Brasher doubloons have been popularized in detective novels and motion pictures, such as The High Window, by Raymond Chandler, and the feature film The Brasher Doubloon (Twentieth Century Fox, 1946). To the average American citizen, the Brasher Doubloon is the archetype of a rare and valuable coin and enjoys a lofty status in pop culture that is arguably unapproached by any other coin. A more extensive sale recap to follow.
