Lot 1133
1853 U.S. Assay Office $20 Gold, 900 THOUS. PCGS graded AU-50. Here is a beautiful, original (we think so at least) and pleasing example of this fairly common Territorial isssue. The United States Assay Office of Gold in San Francisco was the primary mint for the tons of gold coming out of the Sierra Mountains and surrounding foothills and streams. Early in the Gold Rush, miners were paid far less than their gold was worth elsewhere (New York for instance) as the business and banking infrastructure were not yet capable of handling the massive gold flows in the California area. Private minters and semi-government assayers helped bring the costs down within a few years, and soon miners were receiving prices closer to the spot price of gold for their dust and nuggets. By 1853, when this coin was struck, a total of 2,500,000 similar coins were made from over 30 different dies. This particular coin has no upper crossbar on the I of UNITED and the serifs on the letter E come and go at will. Despite the huge mintage, these are still scarce, and PCGS has only graded a total of 210 pieces or so, most of which are in high grades, or even mint state. As stated, this is a wonderful, high grade example of this issue, there are two minor rim bumps, one near the left wing tip on the obverse, the other on the reverse at about 10:00, but these are the only problems we noticed.
Estimated Value $3,000 - 4,000.
|
| |
| Realized $3,680 |
