(Fox News) – A World War II veteran’s musty old Bentley that was left sitting
in a garage for three decades sold for $600,000 this week, much more than
was expected. But the amount paid may have been more of a tribute to the
owner than the car.

To be sure, the 1936 Bentley 4 1/2 Litre Vanden Plas Tourer is rare. It’s just
1 of 6 like it made, and the only one left with its original body. No one really
cared much about that when retired Royal Air Force navigator and pilot
Charles Blackham purchased it from its original owner in 1952, fixed it up
and turned it into his daily driver.

Blackham had been a member of the squadron that bombed Hitler’s “Eagles
Nest” retreat in April 1945, and he later made food drops in Europe after the
fall of the Nazi regime.

He used the Bentley until 1988 when it became too much trouble to keep it
running, and parked it in the garage at his home near Manchester, where
it sat rotting away until his death in January at age 96.

Blackham, center, and members of his squadron in WWII.
(H&H Classics)

Before the switch to steel took place, a handful of cents were minted 
by mistake in copper, making a 1943 Bronze Lincoln cent coin (above) one of the most famous coins in U.S. history: 76 years later, the very
first of these error coins ever discovered will make history when
Heritage Auctions offers the rarity Jan. 10 in Orlando, Florida.

The penny that a Massachusetts teenager found in his change from lunch money could be worth as much as $1.65 million when it is auctioned off. (Fox News)

(Fox News) – An extremely rare U.S. currency note from the late 19th century
is expected to sell for up to $3 million when it is auctioned next year.

The 1891 $1,000 Silver Certificate is the only bill of its kind believed to exist
in private hands, according to auction house Stack’s Bowers Galleries. Known
as the Marcy note, the bill features the portrait of former New York Governor
William L. Marcy, who served as a senator and as secretary of war under
President James Knox Polk.    

Stack’s Bowers Galleries notes that the Marcy note is sometimes considered
the “unicorn” of U.S. money thanks to its unique design. The bill, which has
an estimated pre-sale value of $2 million to $3 million, is being offered at
auction for the first time.

The note will be auctioned at the Whitman Spring Expo, which takes place in Baltimore between Feb. 28 and March 3.

GENEVA (AP) — A large, drop-shaped natural pearl pendant (above) sold for
a hammer price of $32 million at an auction of jewelry that once belonged
to French Queen Marie Antoinette, which Sotheby’s is calling a record
price for a pearl at auction.

The "Queen Marie Antoinette’s Pearl," a diamond-and-pearl pendant, was
among the highlight offerings on the block at the Sotheby’s sale of Bourbon-
Parma dynasty jewelry.
     
 

Marie Antoinette (Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna)
November 2, 1755 – October 16, 1793)

Marie Antoinette was the last Queen of France before the
French Revolution. She was convicted by the Revolutionary
Tribunal of high treason and executed by guillotine on the
Place de la Révolution.

BOSTON (AP) — A 12-pound chunk of the moon that fell to the Earth as a
lunar meteorite has been sold at auction for more than $600,000. It was
found last year in a remote area of Mauritania in northwest Africa.

Boston-based RR Auction announced Friday the $612,500 winning bid for
the meteorite, composed of six fragments that fit together like a puzzle,
came from a representative working with the Tam Chuc Pagoda complex
in Ha Nam Province, Vietnam. They predicted it would get $500,000 at
auction.

It is considered one of the most significant lunar meteorites ever found
because of its large size and because it has "partial fusion crust" caused
by the tremendous heat that sears the rock as it falls to Earth.