MS67 by PCGS, previous auction in 1981.
MS64 by PCGS, sold for $ 2M by Heritage on August 7, 2014.
MS63+ by NGC, sold for $ 1.4M by Heritage on May 16, 2014.
MS61+ by NGC, sold for $ 820K by Heritage in April 2013.
The fifth in the census, graded MS61 by PCGS, was sold for $ 1.15M by Heritage on April 19, 2012. It is now for sale by Stack's Bowers in Baltimore on November 9, lot 10003. I narrated the silver center cents as follows before its 2012 sale :
The American act of Congress dated April 2, 1792 defined the values of the metal coins. The development of the 1 cent coin was a real puzzle : it was required to adjust the price of the metal to one hundredth of the metal price of the dollar. In copper, it would be too big. In silver, too small.
The engineers had two intermediate options : alloy or bimetal. The latter variant seems a technical feat. It was nonetheless tried. The 1792 Silver Center Cent is actually composed of copper centered with a small silver plug. The value of copper is 1/4 hundredth of a dollar, the silver 3/4 hundredth. The calculation matches !
This coinage of such a special design was one of the very first to have been made in the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, and as such is highly appealing the numismatists.
The competing technology of the Silver Center Cent in 1792 was the Fusible Alloy Cent. This one also was not viable industrially. At the official launch of the U.S. coinage in 1793, all these tests had been abandoned in favor of the most logical technology which was the copper coin identified as the Large Cent.
SOLD for $ 900K including premium
Coming up in our official auction of the @WhitmanCoin Expo, The Cardinal Collection. Click here for highlights! https://t.co/YTAFk5XBCV pic.twitter.com/XjK8QlAFlA
— Stack's Bowers (@StacksBowers) October 16, 2017