The face value was one-half cent, but a 1794 Liberty Cap variety sold at auction Jan. 26 for $1,150,000. And an 1811 half cent brought $1,121,250.

The coins were part of the Missouri Cabinet Collection, which contained every variety of half cent struck from 1793-1857.

The 228 coins brought a total $18,259,269, which includes the 15 percent buyer's fees, at the Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles auction held at the Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel in Los Angeles.

"Fifty years from now, people will remember that sale," said Larry Goldberg following the auction. "We had over 100 people at the auction and some were yelling out prices, which you usually don't see in a copper sale."

The sale took six and one-half hours, and although the coins brought plenty of competition, it was a congenial group of mostly collectors bidding.

"It was spirited, friendly competition," Goldberg said.

"Everybody came out of there smiling," said Bob Grellman, who cataloged the collection with Chris McCawley. The auction was a joint effort with McCawley & Grellman Auctions and the Goldbergs.

The finest known specimen of the classic 1794 High Relief type half cent went to Brent Pogue of Texas, who purchased the coin for the Pogue family collection.

When it comes to half cents, the Missouri Cabinet Collection is the best of the best.

But then again, it took more than 40 years and the efforts of several noted numismatists to amass such a collection. At the heart of it is a collaboration between R. "Tett" Tettenhorst and the Eric P. Newman Numismatic Education Society (EPNNES).

The Missouri Cabinet Collection includes Tettenhorst's half cent collection and the half cent collection of Eric P. Newman, which includes cents from the collection of Col. Edward H.R. Green, which Newman had donated to EPNNES.

Tettenhorst had custody of all the Missouri Cabinet Collection half cents and managed the continued improvements to its collection, Grellman said.

Tettenhorst and EPNNES were pleased with the auction results, Grellman said.

And for good reason. The catalog estimates put the collection value at about $7 million, with pre-auction estimates of the final hammer price at about $10 million. With a final total of $18,259,269, the auction was beyond successful.

To read the complete article, see:2 Half Cents Top $1 Million(numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=27602&et_mid=658552&rid=238176646)