The USA bought Alaska from Russia for 2 cents an acre!

Secretary of State William H. Seward agreed to purchase Alaska from Russia for only $7.2 million in 1867. At the time, critics referred to this as "Seward's folly", "Seward's Icebox" and "[President] Andrew Johnson's polar bear garden".

With approximately 365 million acres, that amounts to less than 2 cents per acre. Still, critics thought Seward was crazy, and the deal only passed the Senate by one vote. Of course, we later found out that Alaska has GOLD and OIL...