1860 $5 Mormon Five Dollar AU55 PCGS....

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Sold on Jul 31, 2009 for:

$63,250.00 Bid Source: Live: Floor bidder

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Historic K-6 1860 Mormon Five, AU55

1860 $5 Mormon Five Dollar AU55 PCGS. K-6, High R.5. After a decade elapsed following the end of the first era of Mormon gold coinage, a brief revival took place in 1860. In his article "Mormons arrive to gold" from the December 20, 2004 edition of Coin World, Eric von Klinger describes the origin of the pieces: "J.M. Barlow, a jeweler of Salt Lake City, who identified himself as gold refiner and coiner, wrote that Dougal Brown made the dies in Barlow's office."
After a brief discussion of the new motifs, the recumbent lion framed by Deseret characters on the obverse and the eagle and beehive of the reverse, von Klinger continues by noting the source of the gold for the new coinage: "The gold for the 1860 coins is supposed to have come from mines in Colorado, where a gold rush began in 1858. The gold dust was about .917 (22-karat) fine, purer than the California gold that was used for the older Mormon coinage."
According to von Klinger, who quotes the records of one Colonel Joseph M. Lock, "a Salt Lake City mining engineer in the 1880s," the 1860-dated five dollar coins were struck in a space of just 10 days, with only 472 pieces produced before the territorial government shut down the operation. Among the few survivors of this rare issue, the present coin is high on the curve, with only minor wear and marks on still-lustrous yellow-gold surfaces that have glimpses of green-gold. Great eye appeal and history. Listed on page 377 of the 2010 Guide Book. Population: 13 in 55, 4 finer (6/09).

Coin Index Numbers: (NGC ID# 6J6Z, PCGS# 10268, GSID# 11824)

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