A handful of copper Birch Cents would have bought a meal of cold meat and a pint of beer at an early 19th-century American tavern, but at an auction in Baltimore late Thursday night, one fetched nearly $1.2 million.

"Going once, looking for $1.1 million," cried auctioneer Melissa Karstedt, standing on the podium of a carpeted room at the Baltimore Convention Center during the Whitman Coin & Collectibles Expo, which runs through Saturday. "Going twice, any advance on $1 million? Last call. ... Sold for $1 million to bidder 280."

In the catalog published by the expo auctioneer, Stack's Bowers Galleries, the "The Magnificent Bushnell-Parmelee Jenks-Col. Green 1792 Birch Cent" was described as "simply, the first of a cultural phenomenon that is known the world over: it is the first American cent."

Stamped in Philadelphia in the summer of 1792, the coin was named for its designer, Robert Birch. About the size of a modern quarter, it bears on one side a profile of Lady Liberty, her wavy hair flowing, and on the other a wreath.

A 1792 cent made of copper with a silver plug in the center went for $499,375. The silver-copper cent was the result of a collaboration between Thomas Jefferson and American revolutionary Thomas Paine. Letters show that the two men exchanged ideas about coinage at the time, with Paine suggesting the hybrid copper-silver penny, also showing Lady Liberty on one side and a wreath on the other.

Vicken Yegparian, Stack's Bowers' vice president of numismatics - the study or collection of currency - said he was happy with the price of the Birch Cent.

"Any million-dollar thing in numismatics is significant," he said. "It's not every day you sell a million-dollar rarity."

An array of motivations drive coin collectors, said Yegparian, who has been with the company for 15 years and collecting coins himself for about 30 years.

"The primary motivation is a love of history, a love of the beauty and the lore of the coin," he said. "In the top-tier pieces, some of it is just bragging rights: 'I have something you don't.'"

To read the complete article, see:
Early American penny fetches more than $1 million at Baltimore auction (www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-auction-coins-20150325-story.html)

Dick Hanscom forwarded this Daily Mail version of the story, and they chose to republish a photo of a hirsute coin dealer.

To read the complete article, see:
Prototype US penny sold for $1.175million to anonymous bidder during auction (www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3014725/Prototype-US-penny-sold-117-5-million-pennies.html)