LOT #3226 |
Current Bid: $11,570
1849 $2 1/2 Mormon Quarter Eagle XF40 PCGS. CAC. K-1, High R.5....
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Description
1849 Mormon Two and a Half, XF40
K-1, Scarce Deseret Issue
1849 $2 1/2 Mormon Quarter Eagle XF40 PCGS. CAC. K-1, High
R.5. While the first federal quarter eagles made from
California gold were the famous CAL. commemoratives dated 1848,
struck at Philadelphia, the initial coinage of two and a half
dollar gold pieces in California gold west of the Continental
Divide was a private coinage in Utah, made from yellow metal
brought to the Great Salt Lake Valley by Mormon
soldiers-turned-miners. The Mormons had returned from the Mexican
war by way of northern California in 1848, where the earliest
discoveries of gold took place. The coins were struck for the
benefit of the Mormon community that had recently settled in the
Great Salt Lake Valley after traveling from the East, and
represented the first significant wealth to bestow itself upon the
followers of Brigham Young. Mormon coinage was also produced in
five, ten, and twenty dollar denominations in 1849, but only the
five dollar piece was struck again in later years. The two and a
half dollar issue was produced only in 1849.This example is faintly satiny in the fields despite wear and has pale olive-gold surfaces with deeper oranges and violets at the rims, a confirmation that this piece was not, as the acronym on the obverse states, "pure gold." Isolated die bulge weakness renders the 1 in the date and the L in LORD invisible, but this remains an important artifact of American religious and economic history. Listed on page 402 of the 2026 Guide Book. Population: 8 in 40, 31 finer. CAC: 2 in 40, 8 finer (8/25).
Ex: FUN Signature (Heritage, 1/2013), lot 5997; The Buffalo Bayou Collection of Territorial Gold / FUN Signature (Heritage, 1/2022), lot 4508.
Coin Index Numbers: (NGC ID# 2BCD, PCGS# 10259, Greysheet# 11818)
Auction Info
2025 October 2 - 5 GACC US Coins Signature® Auction #1386 (go to Auction Home page)
Proxy Bidding Ends
October
2nd
Thursday
12:50 pm CT
Auction Dates
October
2nd-5th
Thursday-Sunday
Proxy Bidding Time Remaining
17 Days
13h 45m 56s
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 16
Lot Tracking Activity: 37
Page Views: 149
Buyer's Premium per Lot:
20% of the successful bid (minimum $29) per lot.
This lot is in: 1 -
Signature® Premier Floor Session - PREMIER (Live Floor, Live Phone, Mail, Fax, Internet, and Heritage Live):
(Lots 3001-3238) - 1:00 PM Central Time, Thursday, October 2, 2025.
[Proxy bidding ends ten minutes prior to the session start time. Live Proxy bidding on Heritage Live now starts within 2 hours of when the auction opens for proxy bidding and continues through the live session.]
Exhibition Viewing Times, Title Page, Floor Session and License Information
Additional Location Info:
Heritage Auctions
2801 W. Airport Freeway
Dallas, TX 75261
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