Lot 3499
1852 Wass, Molitor & Co. (San Francisco) $5 Gold. Large Head. Kagin-2, R-6. PCGS graded AU-55. Premium Quality. This is an old friend, originally sold by us (under the Superior Galleries name) as part of the A. Bernard Shore collection, where we described it, as follows: "Well struck with the exception of stars eight through eleven on the obverse; the reverse lacks the concavity which is usually seen, and which often makes the reverse appear extremely weakly struck. Quite lustrous and with beautiful rich orange gold color. Well centered and with pleasing surfaces; a small obverse edge dent at 1 o'clock serves as identification. This is a very rare variety with fewer than 20 auction records recorded in nearly 75 years. We feel that fewer than 20 specimens exist, and most of these grade only Good to Fine. We are unaware of more than 3 which are as nice (or finer) than this example." Bringing our previous description up to date, we note that our conservative grade of AU-50 in the Shore sale has now been elevated to AU-55 by PCGS and the edge dent at 1 o'clock is no longer visible because of the way the coin sits in the holder. We presume any finer examples would have made it onto the market by now and, some of those examples we once thought were this coin's equal (or better) may not have passed the rigors of the grading services. In any event, the new owner can rest assured that this is a significant coin, at or near the top of the Condition Census, and a great rarity from a small maker of Pioneer gold coins well-known for their rarity and desirability (PCGS # 10342) Estimated Value $15,000 - 20,000
Superior Galleries "A. Bernard Shore Collection" January 30, February 1-2, 1988, Lot 4636.
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| Realized $33,350 |
