Lot 4243
1850 Baldwin & Co. (San Francisco) $5 Gold. PCGS graded AU-55. Lightly toned with some luster evident. Very sharply struck with rich and deep orange gold suggesting a high copper content in the alloy. Kagin, page 279, notes that other examples exist with a bright yellow appearance from high silver content in the alloy.
This example is from the same dies as that in Eliasberg, however, without the heavy die break at star 12 on the obverse. The reverse has the final A in CALIFORNIA cut over an errant upside down V. A crack is noted from the border through top right serif of M, top of V, and wing tip to border over C.
All Baldwin dies are by Kuner. On March 15, 1850, the firm bought out F. D. Kohler's assaying and coining apparatus (as Kohler was then anticipating appointment to the office of State Assayer, which duly occurred six weeks later). On May 1, Baldwin & Co. began advertising in the Pacific News as "Successors to F.D.KOHLER & Co. / Assayers, refiners and coiners / Manufacturers of jewelry, etc. / George C. Baldwin and Thos. S. Holman. / All kinds of engraving. Our coins redeemable on presentation." Their operation was evidently successful, since during the first three months of 1851 alone they coined at least $590,000 face value -- $60,000 more than Humbert's federal Assay Office. Part of the reason for this volume of coinage was that melting of many of the early private mint $5, $10, and $20 pieces left a coin shortage. Moffat & Co., another of Baldwin's competitors, issued octagonal $50s under their subcontract with Humbert, failing to relieve the shortage of smaller denominations. Pop 3; 2 in 58. (PCGS # 10025) .
Estimated Value $25,000 - 30,000.
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| Realized $33,350 |
