'Pawn Stars' guest who brought old coin told it's the ‘holy grail’ of American coins and worth a fortune

Although some antiques do come across as valuable or historically significant at first, it's hard for most people to accurately figure out how much they are worth. More often than not, guests on History Channel’s "Pawn Stars" have no idea of the true value of the items they bring to the table. This was the case with the man who walked into the pawn shop with the 'holy grail' of American coins. The guest said he won the coin, a rare "1922 high relief matte Peace dollar" in a lucky poker game and just wanted $20,000 for it. But things took an unexpected turn and Rick Harrison offered him about four times more than what he had asked for. 

The Holy Grail of American coins

The guest, John, walked into the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the piece of treasure in a sealed plastic case. "Pawn Stars" celebrity Harrison was quite surprised to see the Numismatic Guaranty Company's (NGC) case and asked the guest where he got the coin. "I won it at a poker game, believe it or not," the guest replied. To emphasize just how rare the coin was, Harrison described it as the "Holy Grail" of American coins. The host explained that the U.S. Mint brought back the silver dollar coins in 1921 and a year later they tried to make some high-relief copies.

However, only a few coins of the kind were minted before production was halted again, Harrison claimed. He then showed that the high-relief proof version features the Liberty Head in great detail, and it is the coin that almost every collector is after. Harrison then asked the guest how much he wanted for the coin and when the guest said $20,000, the host was ready to make a deal then and there.

Harrison then told the guest that the coin was worth a lot more than $20,000. Before making an offer, he told the guest that since he had never seen such a coin in person, he wanted to call in an expert to clarify some of his "mega concerns" one of which is the coin being fake. 

A Historic Moment

Harrison then brought in the director of NFC ancients, David Vagi to evaluate the coin. Even the expert was surprised to learn that the owner won the coin in a poker game. The expert explained that these coins remained unknown to the public for years and were never really part of a transaction until 1938. He further said that the high-relief art was a triumph in design but a failure of technology as the mint couldn't strike the coins with enough pressure to bring out the details. The failure also led to the discontinuation of the design, making the coin an extreme creation. 

Coming to the authenticity of the coin, the expert said that the NGC casing is genuine and intact and the coin is also legitimate and one of the few known examples of the design. Vagi then estimated that the coin could be worth more than $50,000 but a little less than $100,000. "Very few specialists have had the chance to handle them," Vagi said.

Once the expert left, Harrison got down to negotiating. In one of the rarest moments of the show, Harrison offered $65,000, which was about $45,000 more than the asking price. However, the guest pushed the asking price to $90,000 after learning about the true value.

After some haggling, the two finally settled to make a deal for $80,000. Before leaving, John said that he would continue to play poker in hopes of winning a similar coin once again someday.