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Lot 63
1783-95 John Burger Regulated Gold, US $8.00, Brazil 1778-R 6400R, KM-199.2, NGC XF45. "JB" C/M on cut. 215 Grains. We note a couple moderate scratches on the reverse.This Regulated Gold Half Joe, as it was called (1783-95 John Burger Regulated Gold) has original surfaces and stamped with the JB script monogram for John Burger of New York. The 1783-95 John Burger Regulated Gold coin is on an lightly clipped 6400R coin. The clipping occurs below the date. The gold surfaces are choice and free of damage or harsh cleaning. There is a faint old hairline scratch in the reverse field at right. Burger’s hallmark is placed on the neck of Queen Maria I (her bust on this issue accolated with that of her husband's, Pedro III). Burger used the round mark, which is seen more often than the oval one.
Coins from Brazil, Portugal, Spain, France, and England all circulated in colonial and post-colonial America until the 1830s-1850s. Each had a different weight and fineness making trade inconvenient. According to researchers at U.S. Rare Coin Investments, "The problem was first dealt with in colonial times, when coins were 'regulated.' This practice continued after Independence. A goldsmith or silversmith would drill a coin and add gold in the form of a plug to increase its weight. If it was then overweight, he would clip and/or file its edge. Thus, coins were "regulated" to certain standards. The plugs that were added were then stamped with a hallmark identifying the regulator who guaranteed the gold content of the piece. Regulators, who were also jewelers and highly thought of members of the community, included John Bayley, John Burger, John David Jr., Lewis Feuter, Myer Myers, Thomas Pons, Thomas Underhill, and William Hollingshead. However, none was so prominent and famous in numismatic circles as Ephraim Brasher."
The host coin is a 1778R 6400R made in the Rio Mint. Its obverse shows accolated portrait of King Pedro III and his wife.
Regulated coins have been found in collections of famous collectors and numismatists. These include Virgil M. Brand, Louis Eliasberg, John J. Ford Jr., John Work Garrett, Waldo Newcomer, and John L. Roper. Edward Roehrs had an excellent collection of regulated coins that was auctioned in 2010 at the ANA Boston World's Fair of Money.
John Burger was a New York silversmith who also regulated coins for the new government. In 1786 his address was listed as 207 Queen Street in New York City.
Although the grading services do not list regulated coins in their population reports, one can assume that this 1783-95 John Burger Regulated Gold coin is rare.
Historic Note: Regulated gold coins, particularly those marked by Ephraim Brasher, have long been collected by major U.S. specialists who recognized their importance. Despite little published work on them, such specimens found their way into the major cabinets of the early 20th century. This well-provenanced example would grace a similarly world-class collection.
Noted historians, Gold Rusy Gallery, Inc. of Dahlonega, Georgia, explains the significance of these important counterstamped pieces from the American colonial period:
The 6400 Reis of Brazil and Portugal, variously called a "4 escudos," a "Peca," a "Joe," or a "Half Joe," was the most commonly transacted gold coin in North America in the second half of the 18th century. Despite the fact that regulation of gold coins was not limited to New York City, the Big Apple was apparently the center of this enterprise. When Thomas Jefferson was in Philadelphia in 1793, he noted in his Memorandum Books that he exchanged "two pieces of New York gold" with a merchant friend who served as his personal banker while in Philadelphia. A few days later, he noted receiving $8 as a partial payment for the two coins – good evidence that Jefferson’s "New York gold" were actually two half Joes (each worth $8), perhaps ones whose regulation by Brasher or Burger made Jefferson associate them with New York. The other option is, of course, a couple of Brasher doubloons, or perhaps a handful of Brasher half doubloons – worth $8 – though the Brasher half doubloon in the Smithsonian is the only one known today. The $8 Half Joe was such a fine standard of value, fixed and not prone to depreciation, that Annapolis, Maryland’s City Council clerk James Brooks used "the half Johannes or half Joe" as his standard when creating a chart showing the depreciation of paper money between September 1776 and April 1781. The dependability of the gold medium was vital to merchants who traded overseas, particularly those who dealt with the islands of the West Indies. With no trade transacting with England legally in the early 1780s, the unregulated trade with the West Indies became vital to the nation’s economy and national security. At the center of this trade was Portuguese gold. Estimated Value $2,500-UP
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