PCGS - At the PCGS Members Only Show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in late February, we had an order of 17 gold coins come through from Brown Bros. Auction, a small auction house in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, founded in 1915. Several impressive $5 gold pieces from the early 1800s excited us for both their condition and their fresh state of preservation. However, it was the last coin in the box that ended up being my favorite coin of the entire show.
To set the stage, gold was discovered in California in the mid-1840s and created a national migration of thousands of individuals set on making their fortunes in panning or mining for gold. Many of them were successful and were able to amass large amounts of wealth from their labors. After a time, it was obvious that trade was becoming increasingly difficult as these individuals had come to California with very few federal coins that could be used. They initially began trading pinches of gold dust and small nuggets, but this was a very inaccurate way to conduct business. In the late 1840s, there were several individuals and companies who began the business of refining, assaying, and striking coins to the federal standard. Denominations ranging from $1 all the way up to $50 were produced. However, due to the difficulty of amassing quantities of acids needed for refining purposes, many of these private issues were lacking in weight or gold quality and could be difficult to barter with.
Many individuals called on the government to open a branch mint in San Francisco as the nearest mint was thousands of miles away in New Orleans over rough terrain. In 1852 a government assay office was opened to alleviate some of the pressure. It was in this assay office that this $50 gold piece, commonly referred to as a "slug," was minted using genuine California gold-rush gold. Using online inflation calculators, we find that $50 in 1852 had the equivalent purchasing power of around $2,000 today, so this was still a difficult thing to barter with. It is estimated that over 20,000 of these coins were produced. However, today only a few hundred are thought to exist. The reason for this dramatic attrition is that the politicians in California got what they were seeking from the federal government in gaining a branch mint in San Francisco in 1854. Due to the opening of the mint, most of the $50 slugs were turned in to be minted into smaller, more usable denominations.
This particular coin is special because it is one of the finest known examples, graded PCGS MS63+. There is only one finer example of this variety, which was graded MS64. As gold is a soft metal, and these coins are octagonal with sharp edges, most of the examples that we see have issues with dents on the rims and major scrapes on the designs. This specimen is devoid of those common problems and is mind-numbingly fresh. Each one of the graders at the show held this coin for several minutes, admiring the surface preservation and aesthetics. This amazing piece of history has a PCGS Price Guide value of over $300,000.
Posted 06/25/2024 1:56 pm
