The transaction involving Heritage Auctions, Monaco Rare Coins and the new owner – an anonymous West Coast collector – represents one of the highest prices ever paid for an American coin.
The price exceeded the $4.58m (including premium) that the same coin had fetched when it sold at Heritage in January 2014.
The coin had the highest grade among the seven recorded examples of its type.
The doubloons struck by goldsmith and silversmith Ephraim Brasher, George Washington's neighbour in New York City, are considered the first ‘truly American’ gold coins.
The most sought after from this era are those with Brasher’s original design which adapted New York's state coat of arms on one side and the Great Seal of the United States on the other.
Brasher’s distinctive hallmark, the letters EB inside an oval, appears on the right wing of the eagle clutching an olive branch in one leg and bearing arrows on the other.
The 1787 New York Brasher Doubloon showing the mark of goldsmith and silversmith Ephraim Brasher.
