'Pawn Stars' boss Rick Harrison pays a whopping $250,000 for rare coin in surprisingly great shape
Most "Pawn Stars" fans can only visualize Rick Harrison haggling with sellers to cut a deal favorable for himself, but sometimes even he can concede defeat. This happened when he came across a rare 1652 New England Shilling, which was in such great shape that Harrison decided not to play hardball for it. In the end, he closed a historic deal for the shop by paying a whopping $250,000 for the one rare coin.
Harrison went down to Boston to meet Edwards, the owner of the rare coin. In his interview, he shared that he found the 1652 New England shilling, which was literally the first coin ever minted in the English Colonies of America. "So if I can pick this thing up, I could make my own serious coinage," he joked.
When Harrison met Edward, the seller confirmed that it was the "holy grail" of coins. "These were the first coins struck in the Colonies. They were really, really proud of it, even though it's possibly the plainest coin ever made," he explained. Edward shared that he got the coin about 30 years ago, and recently learned that it was quite valuable. "I just want to be able to share it with somebody else who has the same interests that I do," he added.
Harrison was just blown away by the condition of the coin as he couldn't stop raving about it. "It's super, super cool," he said. "I mean, it's pretty amazing it hasn't been clipped. You never see old coins complete like this because people would go and they would clip a teeny bit off," he added. He then explained that the clipping tradition led to the destruction of many rare coins, and most such coins only exist in pieces today. "It's in awfully good shape," Harrison went on to say.
After further examining the coin, Harrison noted that the inscriptions on the coin were in good shape as well. He pointed out that the number 12, which indicated it was worth 12 pence or a shilling, was clear, and the letters "NE" for New England were prominent as well. "I'm just shocked to see it. God, it's in great shape. In the coin-collecting world, it's one of the big ones," the pawn shop boss commented. He then asked Edward the big question, "What do you want for this thing?"
Edward told Harrison that he had seen such coins sell for $250,000 and even upwards of $400,000. Thus, he asked for $300,000 to begin with. While the coin was great, the number was a little high for the pawn shop boss. Thus, he countered with $225,000, and Edward came down to $250,000. Shockingly, Harrison did not negotiate much as he said, "It's just in really great shape. And at $250,000, I still make some money. So we've got a deal."
In the end, Edward shared that he was happy to make a deal as he could use the money for something important. "My wife's been pestering me to get out of the cold New England winters, so maybe I'll buy a second home in a warmer climate," he shared in the end.
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