1856 G$1 Upright 5 MS65 PCGS. CAC....

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Description

1856 Type Three Gold Dollar, MS65
Important Upright 5 Variant

1856 G$1 Upright 5 MS65 PCGS. CAC. A lack of full strike pressure results in indistinct details on the high points of the devices, being the deepest recesses of the coinage dies. This fully brilliant light yellow-gold Gem displays frosty mint luster with a few scattered, grade-consistent marks.

Variety and Die State: Breen-6046. Upright 5. This early die state piece is struck from perfect dies showing no clash marks or other anomalies.

Population (6/15): Five MS65 examples at PCGS are tied for second finest behind a single MS66. NGC has seen three in MS65 and one in MS66.

Commentary: The exact mintage of 1856 Upright 5 gold dollars remains unknown, although Dave Bowers estimates a mintage of 176,294 pieces, assuming the variety is 10 times rarer than the Slanted 5 variety. The gold dollar mintage for the year totaled 1,762,936 coins at Philadelphia. The combined PCGS and NGC population reports suggest that the Upright 5 variety is slightly more plentiful, with 15.8% of all 1856 gold dollars certified as the rarer variety. If the rate of resubmission is the same for both varieties, the population data suggests a mintage of 278,544 coins. Perhaps an estimated mintage of 225,000 coins is reasonable.

Douglas Winter Commentary: The 1856 Upright 5 has to be one the most overlooked Type Three gold dollars, if not among the more undervalued 19th century U.S. gold coins. It is dozens of times scarcer than its Slanted 5 counterpart and is seldom seen above MS63. Gems are very rare, with probably not more than four to six known. In fact, the last MS65 PCGS to sell at auction was lot 3211 in the April 2008 Heritage Central Sates sale, which realized $7,475. CAC has only approved three in MS65, and none have appeared previously at auction. The finest known to me is the MS66 NGC-CAC coin that brought a record $20,700 as lot 5329 in the August 2011 Heritage sale.

One of the more unusual hoards of U.S. gold coins appeared last year in a Goldberg auction where a large group of 1856 Upright 5 gold dollars, with coins ranging from damaged to the finest known (the MS66 NGC mentioned above). The assembler of this collection had offered the group to me earlier, and I passed. I couldn't resist asking him why he chose the 1856 Upright 5 gold dollar as his hoard coin of choice and his answer stunned me: An old article on my website mentioned this issue as one of the "10 Most Underrated Gold Coins," and this spurred him to buy as many as he could.

Provenance: Purchased from Legend Numismatics.
From The Duckor Family Collection of Gold Dollars.(Registry values: P2)

Coin Index Numbers: (NGC ID# 25CA, PCGS# 7541, Greysheet# 8018)

Weight: 1.67 grams

Metal: 90% Gold, 10% Copper

View all of [The Duckor Family Collection of Gold Dollars ]

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