The half-cent coin is the smallest denomination of U.S. currency ever minted, but it’s worth big bucks for West L.A.’s Ira and Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles.

On Jan. 26 at the Luxe Hotel in Brentwood, the auctioneers will sell a rare collection of 230 half-cent coins minted between 1793 and 1849. Interest is high among coin connoisseurs because there haven’t been many high-quality half-cent coins on the market in years, Ira Goldberg said.

He expects the collection, one of the largest of such coins ever sold, to reel in about $10 million. With a total face value of only $1.15, that would represent an average appreciation of some 870 million percent per coin. A few of the coins are expected to bring in more than $1 million each.

“Collectors have been waiting 50 years for this collection to come up for sale,” he said.

The half-cent coins are part of a four-day auction that is expected to bring in about $20 million. Another notable feature of the auction is a hoard of pre-Civil War gold coins, one of the biggest collections of its kind ever sold together.

That 216-coin collection, all minted in the year 1856 and amassed over decades by the anonymous seller, is expected to fetch about $125,000. All but one coin will be auctioned in one lot.

The Goldberg cousins, third-generation coin auctioneers, usually conduct three auctions a year and hit about $50 million in annual sales. Ira Goldberg, 69, said that the market for the rarest and most valuable coins has jumped, while demand for other items has dipped.

“It follows the course of the economy in general, that the wealthy have bought the best items,” he said.

– Alfred Lee