Rare penny set to sell for $300,000

TORONTO - A Canadian penny is set to sell for more than $300,000.

The penny, which is a rare vintage coin with the image of King George V, will be auctioned in New York next week. King George V, who is famous for the Delhi Durbar of 1911, ruled the British Commonwealth from 1910 to 1936.

According to the Canadian Press, the rare coin is already attracting six-digit bids even before it goes on the auction block next week.

It has already received online bids up to $160,000 ahead of the public auction Sunday, the report said.

But the auctioneers - Heritage Auctions of Dallas - expect the coin to fetch more than $300,000.

The penny is attracting unprecedented bids because it has an interesting history linked to the British royal family.

It is said to be one of the only three known 1936-dated pennies made by the Royal Canadian Mint with a small dot below the date. That was the year King George V died.

But actually, it was minted in 1937, and the mint placed the dots, not the image of the sovereign, on the coins.

The reason for not putting the image of the sovereign on the coin was because King George’s successor Edward VIII had abdicated the throne to marry a twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson, thus leaving the mint without a monarch’s face to grace the coins.

This penny will be part of a multi-million dollar auction of rare coins from around the world, according to the report.

The British monarch is still the head of state in Canada, exercising his or her power through the governor general.