The most famous example of the 1936 Canada King George V Dot Cent will sell at Heritage Auctions' April 18-19 World & Ancient Coins Signature Auction in Chicago.

The dot below the date was added to differentiate between the 1936 and 1937 mintage

The coin is valued at $250,000-300,000. It is the same example that was famously stolen from noted collector John Jay Pittman in 1964, before being returned, bearing scratches in the right obverse field, in an envelope with other coins.

The Dot Cent was produced following the death of Britain's King George V in 1936. As was tradition, the nation's coinage would continue to be produced with a depiction of the dead king until the end of the year, when it was replaced with coins showing his heir, King Edward VIII.

However, Edward VIII famously abdicated his throne in December 1936, leaving the coins that had been produced in anticipation of his reign invalid. A shortage of copper coinage quickly arose, and Canadian authorities were forced to keep producing the 1936 coins bearing the portrait of King George V.

A case of collector envy? The coin (the only mint state example) was stolen and then returned with scratches to the fields

The Canadian mint decided to differentiate this minting with the addition of a tiny dot below the date to the one cent, 10 cent and 25 cent coins. However, only the 25 cent piece was ever put into circulation and it appears that there are only three known examples of the Dot Cent surviving today.

This example is the finest of the three. Graded MS63, it is the only copy to achieve the grading of Mint State.

According to a recent report by Knight Frank, coins are among the top performing of all collectibles, having shown a 248% increase in value over a 10 year period to third-quarter 2012.

Join this thriving market now with our selection of rare coins for sale, including a spectacular series of gold Italian Renaissance examples.