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Sale 62
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Lot 1363
1865-S. PCGS graded MS-66. Well struck with nice toning on the obverse. Only 28,000 struck. A fresh and lovely gem with briskly rolling luster sustaining pale champagne-gray hues. Sharply struck centers, especially on the reverse, though some peripheral weakness can be seen in obverse stars. Repunched 18 in date. From a modest mintage for the date of just 41,000 pieces, many of which went immediately into circulation in San Francisco and its surrounding environs. Those in the know consider this date to be a prized rarity in the Uncirculated grades, especially as a Gem MS66, as offered here; NGC has certified just two Gem MS66 examples of the date. Breen's encyclopedia (1988) notes this date is found "almost always in low grades; prohibitively rare Uncirculated," though that fact is widely known to specialist in the series. A splendid coin with a great deal going for it! Pop 2; none finer at PCGS (PCGS # 5462) .
History of 1865: When the Confederate States of America finally collapsed, the loss of one billion dollars to the South's economy from currency failure along with the utter destructiveness of the war and the horrors of reconstruction left the richest area of the country before the war destitute for generations to come. Part of Lincoln's strategy was to break the "economic back" of the CSA. He achieved this by permitting his general William T. Sherman's (aka kerosene Billy) "march to the sea" where towns, farms, private property (and the City of Atlanta) were burned and the population of women and children were either killed or turned out to suffer the winter homeless and starving.
"Carpet-baggers" and "Scalawags." Immediately after peace returned in 1865, in came a group of poor Northerners to the South. They came carrying carpet-bags stuffed with all their worldly belongings. Hence the term of derision given to them. Many of the freed slaves who had suddenly gained the vote by reason of the hasty passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, fell easily under the influence of the worst "carpet-baggers," and the ensuing corruption in the legislatures was far worse than anything the country had seen before or since. The so-called Scalawags were poor whites who saw in Reconstruction a chance to better themselves, and began to run for political office on the Republican ticket. Like the missionaries who came to Hawaii in the 1820s, "They came to do good, and they did well indeed."
Estimated Value $30,000 - 35,000.
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| Realized $57,500 |
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