2 million dollar cent

I would guess that it's because private sales are largely out of the government's eyes. Put it up for public auction and you are asking for it. Though I am not a government lover, I see its point of view: taking the profit out of pilfering from the Mint.

 

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Private sales are under the radar. Once a coin like these hits a public auction it gets a ton of attention and becomes something someone can make a career off of.

 

Well, that makes sense. But I understand that several of the missing Apollo moon rocks were recovered in "sting" operations that targeted private sellers (and, just as often, discovered the 'moon rocks' being sold were fakes).

http://www.cnn.com/US/9812/07/moon.rock/