When I read the title of this WSJ article, I really thought it was gonna be about some penny stock that was touted as something that would turn people into millionaires (like The Motley Fool does to lure in suckers OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER again (you friggin lowlife spammers, no wonder why you’re all going to hell…and your users could caress less about you crappy products…and your business sucks!)…

…instead the WSJ is writing about a rare coin….because they’re not in the spamming/luring suckers in business like the Motley Fool (perhaps that’s why they don’t have to resort to scamming more people into a half-baked idea for a mutual fund, LOL)…check out the article below on this amazing million dollar penny:

When is a penny worth a million dollars?

When it’s a 1795 reeded-edge U.S. penny, one of only seven known to exist. It recently sold for nearly $1.3 million at auction—the first time a one-cent coin has cracked the million-dollar price barrier.

It follows the sale earlier this year of a high-end collection of rare half-dollars that fetched $1.1 million at auction. At the same time, popular $20 U.S. Saint-Gaudens gold pieces from the early 20th century are commanding $1,700 apiece, sight unseen, in decent, though not perfect condition, topping a record high last seen more than two decades ago.

Credits: Goldberg Coins
$1.3 million: 1795 reeded-edge U.S. penny

Today’s coin market is largely defined by high-end investors grabbing the rarest of coins that infrequently come up for sale; gold bugs snapping up gold coins; and speculators bidding up prices for coins whose grades they suspect are too low, in the hopes of securing a higher grade and selling them for more money. Yet ordinary collectible coins—the nickels, dimes and quarters that are nice but not great—have fallen in value by as much as 30% over the past year, say coin dealers and auction-house executives.

“It’s easier to sell a $100,000 coin today than a $1,000 coin,” says John Albanese, founder of Certified Acceptance Corp., based in Bedminster, N.J., which verifies graded coins.

That mirrors the trend in other collectible markets, such as those for fine art, wine and jewelry. The high end of these markets is garnering big interest as investors increasingly worry about the weakening dollar and the potential for future inflation. Yet lower-end collectibles are struggling in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The Liv-Ex 100 index of investment-grade wine in October was down about 11% since peaking just before the economic downturn. An index of contemporary art is off almost 50% in the 12 moths ended in September, according to Artnet.com, an art information and services Web site.

“Anything that is commercial or easily replaceable isn’t selling so well right now,” says Rahul Kadakia, head of the jewelry department at New York auction house Christie’s. “But if you have something great, there is still a very big market for it, and there are buyers who want to spend to get those great things.”

At an October Christie’s auction, the 32-carat white Annenberg Diamond sold for $7.7 million, or more than $240,000 per carat, shattering world-record prices for white diamonds. Last week, Andy Warhol’s 1962 silkscreen painting “200 One Dollar Bills” sold for $43.7 million to an anonymous buyer at a Sotheby’s auction in New York—more than three times its high estimate of $12 million. Auctions this fall have established new price records for a host of fine-art photographers. And blue-chip wines such as Bordeaux from Chateau Lafitte, Petrus, Le Pin and Ausone “are on fire,” says Charles Curtis, head of Christie’s North American wine sales.

Sales of gold coins are up as much as 75% at Dallas-based online auction house Heritage Auctions Inc. “because there is just so much demand,” says Jim Halperin, the auction house’s co-chairman. “Even Warren Buffett is talking about inflation these days, and people I talk to who are buying coins are worried about a massive onslaught. They’re buying coins because they want to hold something tangible that will do well.”

Coins are generally graded on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 70 (highest), with mint-grade coins—those showing no signs of being circulated—starting at grade 60. Numismatic Guaranty Corp., based in Sarasota, Fla., one of the two main coin-grading services, has recently opened offices in Asia and Europe, as foreigners exploit the weak dollar to grab rare, antique coins that have long resided in the U.S. Demand for grading services has surged to such a degree that the company’s 20 graders are handing as many as 12,000 coins a day, double the level just after the financial crisis hit last year.

Behind the trend are collectors like Robert Beckwitt, a 51-year-old New York money manager. He renewed his childhood fascination with collectible coins a decade ago because coins were cheap. Today, his interest in high-grade coins reflects an investor’s mindset.

“This is my way of diversifying away from stocks and bonds and the U.S. dollar,” he says. In recent years Mr. Beckwitt has snapped up some of the finest examples of coins available, such as the highest-graded 1796 quarter, the first ever minted. Over the summer he grabbed for an undisclosed sum the finest-known 1797 half-dollar. “It wasn’t cheap,” he says. “But I love the history of these early coins.”

…Read the rest of the WSJ article HERE

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