Is this the most expensive $3 coin in the world? It very well may be if it sells for its estimated price of $4 million when it goes up for auction. It's not even the fact that it's made of gold that makes this coin extremely expensive — it's the fact that it's one of two copies ever made, and that every "S" printed on the coin was hand-carved.
Officially called the 1870-S, the first copy of this coin was made by the San Francisco Mint to be placed in the cornerstone of a building in the city. When the coin was later unearthed and found damaged, the Mint created a second copy, which is currently in display at a museum in Colorado.
It's unclear whether the coin going up for auction is the original copy or if an unrecorded third copy was created. Either way, it was found by a European tourist in 1997 while visiting San Francisco, glued inside a Victorian guide to the city that contains a history of the coin itself.
After 15 years of keeping the gold coin, the lucky tourist who found it decided to auction it off at the Four Seasons Auction Gallery in Georgia on June 2. The starting bid for the coin is $1 million, but it's expected to sell for between $2 and $4 million.
