DALLAS, TX.- Canada stopped making pennies in 2012, because they cost about 1.6 cents each to produce, but a rare 1936 Canadian "Dot Cent" struck 77 years ago is expected to sell for more than $250,000 as part of Heritage Auction's April 18-23 CICF World & Ancient Coins Signature® Auction at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rosemont, IL.

"It's one of only three known surviving 1936-dated Canadian cents deliberately made with a small dot under the date on the back of the coin," said Cristiano Bierrenbach, Executive Vice President of Heritage Auctions. "The dot indicated it was a transitional coin after the January 1936 death of King George V who is depicted on the front. It was struck after the December 1936 abdication of King Edward VIII and before the mint could produce cents in 1937 with the effigy of the new monarch, George VI. Just three of the historic 1936 dot cents are known today, and this one still has its original red color."

The current owner of the coin, who wants to remain anonymous, is a long-time collector who lives in Canada and acquired the coin in an auction conducted by Heritage in 2004.

"For several decades before that this famous Canadian coin resided in the United States with its two previous owners — collector and retired publisher of World Coin News, Chester Krause of Iola, Wisconsin, and before that with the late John Jay Pittman of Rochester, New York who was a former president of the Canadian Numismatic Society," said Bierrenbach. "The coin was stolen from Pittman in 1964, but later recovered."

Listen to the PRI/BBC radio interview of anchor Marco Werman speaking with Cristiano Bierrenbach about the auction of the coin.