1851 $5 Schultz & Co. Five Dollar MS62 PCGS. K-1, High R.6....

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1851 Schultz & Co. Five Dollar, MS62
Rare Territorial Gold Issue, K-1
Finest-Known Example
Ex: Riverboat Collection

1851 $5 Schultz & Co. Five Dollar MS62 PCGS. K-1, High R.6. The 1851 Schultz & Co. $5 gold piece is one of the rarest issues in the Territorial gold series. We have traced only 10 examples of this storied issue in our roster below, with a few earlier citations that may or may not represent the same coins. One specimen is held by the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution. PCGS and NGC have combined to certify 14 coins in all grades and conditions, undoubtedly including some resubmissions and crossovers (11/23). Heritage Auctions is pleased to present the finest-known example of this famous rarity in this important offering.

These rare five dollar gold pieces were minted by the firm of Schultz & Co., operated by Judge G.W. Schultz and William Thompson Garrett. The business was located on Clay Street, in San Francisco, directly behind the better-known Baldwin coining facility. Schultz and Co. started as a metalworking shop and foundry, with Judge Schultz as the principle financial backer and Garrett as the machinist. Schultz & Co. forged the dies for most of the private coining operations in San Francisco, with Moffat & Co. the notable exception. Albert Kuner engraved the dies and Garrett turned the hubs, while Schultz handled the financial end of the business.

Schultz & Co. soon graduated to minting their own coinage, issuing five dollar coins from January to April of 1851. Some sources report that ten dollar pieces were also struck, but no example of that denomination has ever surfaced. Curiously, Kuner misspelled the name of the firm when he engraved the dies, and all examples seen have the inscription SHULTS & CO on Liberty's coronet. There is considerable confusion about the correct spelling of Schultz's name, as Edgar Adams refers to him as both Schultz and Shultz, but most historians consider Schultz the preferred spelling. The firm was dissolved in April of 1851, with Garrett continuing the foundry operation and Schultz retaining the coining business afterward. On April 21, 1851, the California Legislature prohibited the private minting of gold coinage, bringing the Schultz & Co. operation to a close.

An early assay by Augustus Humbert found the five dollar coins of Schultz & Co. contained only $4.87 value in gold, causing the coins to be repudiated by the general public. A later assay at the U.S. Mint by Eckfeldt and Dubois was more favorable, yielding a value of $4.94 for the five dollar coin, but the outrage over the earlier report was hard to overcome. In fact, when knowledge of the higher intrinsic value of the coins became widespread, it encouraged mass melting, and the issues of Schultz & Co. were one of the first private gold coinages to vanish from circulation. By 1909, Edgar Adams knew of only two coins in existence, one owned by H.O. Granberg and another in the collection of J.C. Lighthouse.

The first auction appearance of the Schultz & Co. five dollar gold coin was in lot 12 of The Romance of the Pioneers, a catchy title B. Max Mehl composed for his catalog of Judge Charles W. Slack's collection. Charles Slack was a Justice of the Superior Court in San Francisco and an avid collector of Territorial gold issues. Mehl's description reads:

"$5.00, 1851. Liberty head facing left, Shultz & Co. [sic] on diadem, date below, thirteen stars. Reverse, eagle similar to regular issue, FIVE D. below, legend, PURE CALIFORNIA GOLD. Milled edge.

"Exceedingly rare, considered as one of the real great rarities of the entire Pioneer Gold Series. Until a few years ago, only two specimens were known. To the best of my knowledge, there are only three or four specimens now known, including this one. And this is the first specimen ever to have been offered at auction. Although other great rarities with records well into the four-figure mark, have been offered at auction, some ... soon after their issue, but of this great rarity not a single record of sale at auction exists. Even when Pioneer gold coins were more or less plentiful, before they were generally melted up, this coin, owing to its higher intrinsic value, apparently found its way into the melting pot much sooner than all other Pioneer issues. As the other two or three known specimens are, apparently, out of the market for all time, the opportunity of securing this rarity is almost as rare as the coin itself."

Although Mehl's enthusiasm got the better of his grammar at times, his description faithfully recorded the history of the Schultz & Co. $5, and established it as one of the rarest and most valuable issues in the Territorial gold series. The lot realized $1250, a huge sum at the time, to famous collector John Work Garrett. The popularity of the Schultz & Co. $5 has grown steadily over the years, and recent auction appearances include the sale of the AU53 PCGS piece in lot 4493 of our FUN Signature Auction (Heritage, 1/2022), which realized $432,000.

The present coin is by far the finest-known example and the only coin certified in Mint State by either of the leading grading services. It was unknown to early collectors, as it was only discovered in December of 1982 by James Owens, of Sand City, California. Owens found the coin on Christmas Day on a deserted beach near Monterey, with the help of a metal detector (see the March 1984 issue of Lost Treasures magazine and the April 1984 edition of National Geographic for detailed accounts of this find). Butterfield's auctioned the coin in Spring of 1983 and Pacific Coast Auction Galleries featured this piece in their June 1987 Long Beach Sale. It later made headlines in Heritage Auctions' sale of the Riverboat Collection, one of the finest collections of Territorial gold coins in history, in April 2014. This is only its fourth auction appearance and it has been off the market for 10 years.

The design elements of this attractive MS62 example are sharply detailed in most areas, with just a touch of softness on the eagle's right (facing) claw. Several Schultz & Co. five dollar coins show a dramatic die break on the reverse, from the rim above the eagle's wing to the rim above the letter L in GOLD. This piece must have been one of the last coins struck, as the break has developed into a large cud. The attractive, slightly granular surfaces retain much of their original mint luster and show only minor signs of contact. A thin luster graze below star 13 is an easy pedigree marker, although the superior condition of this piece makes it hard to confuse with any other example. Eye appeal is head-and-shoulders above that of any other Schultz & Co. $5. As B. Max Mehl said in his historic description, the opportunity to acquire any Schultz & Co. $5 is a rare event. The chance to bid on this finest-known example has come only twice before in its 163-year history. Territorial gold enthusiasts should bid accordingly. Listed on page 415 of the 2024 Guide Book. This coin is pictured on PCGS CoinFacts. Population: 1 in 62, 0 finer (11/23).

Roster of 1851 Shultz & Co. Five Dollar Gold Pieces
1. MS62 NGC. James Owens discovered this example on a beach near Monterey on December 25, 1982; Public Auction (Butterfield's, Spring 1983), realized $49,500; Ron Gillio; Long Beach Sale (Pacific Coast Auction Galleries, 6/1987), lot 1820, realized $42,000; Riverboat Collection; Central States Signature (Heritage, 4/2014), lot 5439, realized $340,750. The present coin. Plate coin for Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins.
2. AU55 PCGS. Auction '84 (Stack's, 7/1984), lot 1494; United States and World Coins, Medals & Banknotes (Butterfield, Johnson, Gillio, 1/1996), lot 4163.
3. AU53 PCGS. CAC. J.C. Lighthouse, of Rochester, New York before 1909; Lighthouse Collection (J.C. Morgenthau, 2/1936), lot 192; Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr.; Eliasberg Collection, Part I (Bowers and Merena, 5/1996), lot 355; Samuel J. Berngard Collection (Stack's, 7/2008), lot 2243; Rosemont Signature (Heritage, 8/2013), lot 5957, realized $235,000; FUN Signature (Heritage, 1/2022), lot 4493, realized $432,000. Plate coin for the 2014 Guide Book.
4. AU53 NGC. Stack's in 1939, purchased by Col. James Flanagan for $1,000; Flanagan Collection (Stack's, 3/1944), lot 1547; possibly Arthur Nussbaum; Kenyon Painter; Boston ANA Auction (Jess Peters, 8/1973), lot 1008; Auction '79 (RARCOA, 7/1979), lot 1472; Riverboat Collection; Central States Signature (Heritage, 4/2014), lot 5440, realized $152,750.
5. AU Details NCS. Great Western Collection of Territorial Gold (Heritage, 7/2005), lot 10470.
6. XF Details NCS. Nathan M. Kaufman Collection (RARCOA, 8/1978), lot 51; ANA Auction (Kagin's, 8/1983), lot 3645; Old West and Franklinton Collections (American Numismatic Rarities, 8/2006), lot 1131.
7. VF20 PCGS. Kagin Collection; Paul S. Mory Collection (Bowers and Merena, 6/2000), lot 1044, the plate coin in Don Kagin's Private Gold Coins and Patterns of the United States.
8. VF Details, Net VG8 ANACS. New York ANA Sale (Superior, 8/2002), lot 2346.
9. VF20, per numismatist David McCarthy. Josiah K. Lilly; Smithsonian Institution.
10. VG8. Judge Charles W. Slack Collection (B. Max Mehl, 5/1925), lot 12; John Work Garrett; Johns Hopkins University; Garrett Collection, Part II (Bowers and Ruddy, 3/1980), lot 941; Coles Collection (Stack's, 10/1983), lot 253.

Additional Appearances
A. An example owned by Virgil Brand before 1912.
B. H.O. Granberg, before 1909, exhibited at the 1914 ANS Exhibition; Waldo Newcomer; possibly "Col." E.H.R. Green; the plate coin in Wayte Raymond's Private Gold Coins Struck in the United States 1830-1861 and Standard Catalog of United States Coins.
C. Dr. George Alfred Lawrence; Lawrence Collection (Thomas Elder, 6/1929), lot 1392.
D. A second example owned by Kenyon Painter; Boston ANA Auction (Jess Peters, 8/1973), lot 1009, described with moderate to heavy nicks and scratches, light edge nicks, possibly the coin in number 4 above.
From The Old Pioneer Collection.

Coin Index Numbers: (NGC ID# ANJJ, PCGS# 10316, Greysheet# 11872)

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