Lot 1243
1854-S $10 Liberty. NGC graded AU-55. Untoned and lustrous. Pop 44; 36 in 58; 2 in 60; 1 in 61.
(PCGS # 8615) .
It was not all fun and games during the gold rush years in San Francisco. The years 1854 and 1855 were tumultuous at best. No one had time for city business because of the rush to the gold fields. Politics and the government of the city and State were neglected by the residents, and naturally the offices and financial rewards fell to the criminal elements who came west. Some of the worst characters driven from New York's Bowery and from Botany Bay, Australia, held office and reveled in corruption and graft. As is true today, some of the functions of the bankers in 1854 San Francisco were the safeguarding the deposits of miner, merchant and gambler, shipping of gold coins to the East or selling "exchange" on the eastern cities or the homelands of the '49ers.
The banks, not all of them run by paragons of virtue, congregated in the center of the booming town, around Portsmouth square and Montgomery street, and the financial center of the city still remains in that vicinity.
The first panic hit the city in 1855, the year following this 1854-S eagle's issue, when one of the express companies, which had engaged in banking, suspended. Angry miners stormed the closed banks. A story is told that one of the banks informed its customers most of their money was incorporated into building the bank's structure. The depositors were cheerfully told they might help themselves to the bricks!
Estimated Value $1,800 - 2,000.
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| Realized $1,898 |
