1851 $10 Baldwin Ten Dollar AU55 PCGS. K-4, High R.6....

Click the image to load the highest resolution version.

Sold on Jan 9, 2014 for:

$88,125.00 Bid Source: Live: Floor bidder

Get one of these:

Share this lot

Track Item Printable Auction Results

Sell One of These

Description

Auction Info

Guides & Info

Description

1851 Baldwin Ten Dollar, AU55
Rare K-4 Die Pair

1851 $10 Baldwin Ten Dollar AU55 PCGS. K-4, High R.6. The coins created by private assayers who were prominent in the California Gold Rush were accepted in commerce only in proportion to how trusted they were. That trust was remarkably fragile, in that it took only one well-publicized report to bring down nearly the whole ecosystem of private coinage.

That report was created by Augustus Humbert, U.S. Assayer of Gold, at the insistence of James King of William, the sometime-issuer of private coin and muckraker. On March 26, 1851, King received Humbert's assessment that the gold content of the coins from all three assayers--Baldwin & Co., Schultz & Co., and Dubosq & Co.--was less than the Standard Mint Value, or "S.M.V.," that Baldwin and Dubosq advertised on their coins.

The fall was swift, with the newspapers where King had sent the results publishing them and later scathing editorials directed at assayers such as Baldwin. Merchants soon refused to take the coins except at a discount, which led to more howling from the media, and exaggerations of the coins' debasement were rampant within days. On April 15, 1851, the legislature of California outlawed private gold coinage; that same day, according to the Pacific News, the principals of Baldwin & Co. left town on a steamship.

The vast majority of the Baldwin & Co. coins were melted and the gold reclaimed--many, according to Don Kagin, by merchants who took the coins in at steep discounts and reaped profits at the U.S. Assay Office when their actual gold content was revealed. This Choice AU example of an 1851 Baldwin ten dollar is one of the lucky exceptions. Its broadly lustrous surfaces are pale canary-yellow. While each side shows a number of wispy marks and the reverse has reeding abrasion at the last A of CALIFORNIA, the all-around eye appeal is excellent, particularly in the context of the issue. Housed in an older PCGS holder with green label. Listed on page 387 of the 2014 Guide Book. Population: 3 in 55, 1 finer (11/13).
From The Klamath Mountain Collection, Part II.

Coin Index Numbers: (NGC ID# ANHL, PCGS# 10031, Greysheet# 11703)

View all of [The Klamath Mountain Collection, Part II ]

View Certification Details from PCGS