Owner of $10m Flowing Hair coin open to offers at RDS

World’s most expensive coin, part of first batch of US dollars, goes on display in Dublin

Dermot Burke and James O’Brien from Frontline Security guard the world’s most expensive coin, the Flowing Hair Coin, believed to be the first dollar ever minted in the US, which will go on show to the public in the RDS. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times
Dermot Burke and James O’Brien from Frontline Security guard the world’s most expensive coin, the Flowing Hair Coin, believed to be the first dollar ever minted in the US, which will go on show to the public in the RDS. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times

The owner of the world’s most expensive coin, worth $10 million or more, is prepared to listen to offers for it in Dublin this weekend.

The pure silver Flowing Hair coin was among the first batch of US dollars minted in Philadelphia in 1794. Businessman Bruce Morelan, who paid $10 million (€9m) for it in 2013, is believed to be willing to part with it should the right offer come along.

It is on view in a number of European countries for the first time this year as part of an exhibition of historical gold and silver US dollar coins dating back to the establishment of the country as a sovereign nation. An original copy of the Declaration of Independence printed in 1776 is also on display.

There are also historical coins of Irish significance in the exhibition, including 1916 Rising commemorative pieces. Everything is potentially for sale to members of the public who turn up at the RDS on Saturday or Sunday. Prices start at €49.

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James Deeny, managing director of the Dublin Mint Office which is displaying the items, said the Flowing Hair was "one of the very first coins struck on the issue of this first US dollar. We can tell that because of the definition on the coin which is much better than some of the later strikes on the same day.

“This is the point at which they defined their own independent currency, and that in itself was considered by [Thomas] Jefferson to be a key step in establishing a sovereign state.”

The Flowing Hair coin, which features a depiction of the Lady Liberty on one side and a bald eagle on the other, was thought to have been kept in storage by the US government for the first century of its existence before entering private ownership in the late 19th century.

It was purchased for $2.5 million in 2003 before Mr Morelan paid four times more for it a decade later.

Mr Deeny said it took months to arrange the insurance, transport and security to bring the coin to Ireland.