The new GracePoint church struck gold Thursday when a donated $20 coin was sold at auction for $517,000.

The auction of a rare 1866 Double Eagle gold $20 proof coin, stamped with "In God We Trust," fetched well over the estimated sale price of $300,000. A woman who belonged to the churchdonated the coin recently as officials there faced a financing deadline for a building project.

Heritage Auctions sold the coin during a combination live and online auction that closed with the winning bid at 10 p.m. Thursday. The live auction was held at a Schaumburg, Ill., conventioncenter, part of a premium event for high-dollar items, but the final bid came in online, after officials said bidding was so intense, amounts were going up in $20,000 increments. The buyer has notbeen disclosed.

The church will not receive all of the money from the sale, said Ben Lamb, GracePoint's pastor. The actual sale price was $440,000, with premium auction fees paid by the buyer making up therest of the bid.

The church's take of that, after paying out its auction fees, is $418,000, Lamb said. Since Heritage Auctions gave GracePoint officials $150,000 up front when they agreed to auction the coin,the church will receive the remaining balance of $268,000.

"With the most recent construction costs and equipment going up like they have, we needed the coin to sell for more than $300,000 to help with the unforeseen extra expenses," Lamb said,"However, we obviously would have been grateful for it to sell for $300,000, but getting more helps with the deficit so greatly."

Lamb declined further comment and said now that the auction is over, "we're just trying to gratefully move on and do ministry."

To read the complete article, see:
Church's rare coin sold for $517,000(www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-church-rare-coin-auction-st-0429-20170428-story.html)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
CHURCH DONATION: 1866 DOUBLE EAGLE WITH MOTTO (www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n16a12.html)