2215

1851-O

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:1,450.00 USD Estimated At:3,000.00 - 3,300.00 USD
1851-O
1851-O. Sharpness of AU-50. Numerous marks in the fields, yet it still has the unmistakeable allure of a double eagle struck at the Southern mint at New Orleans, Louisiana. The mint was established in 1838 to supply the fast-growing region with a dependable medium of exchange. Double eagles like the 1851-O presented here often were paid out to foreigners for imports received at the port of New Orleans.

The Mississippi River (and New Orleans, its chief port) were famous in the 1850s for their paddle wheel steamboats. On a voyage to New Orleans down the Mississippi in the later 1850s, the steamboat pilot, Horace E. Bixby, inspired his passenger, Samuel L. Clemens (later calling himself "Mark Twain") to pursue a career as a steamboat pilot like Bixby himself; it was a richly rewarding occupation with wages set at $250 per month, equivalent to $150,000+ a year today.

A steamboat pilot needed a vast knowledge of the ever-changing river to be able to stop at any of the hundreds of ports and wood-lots along the river banks. The future author meticulously began to study 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of the Mississippi for more than two years before he received his steamboat pilot license. While training, Clemens convinced his younger brother Henry to work with him. Henry was killed on June 21, 1858, when the steamboat he was working on, the Pennsylvania, exploded. Twain had foreseen this death in a detailed dream a month earlier, which inspired an interest in parapsychology. Twain was guilt-stricken over his brother's death and held himself responsible for the rest of his life. However, he continued to work on the river and served as a river pilot until the American Civil War broke out in 1861 and traffic along the Mississippi was curtailed.
Estimated Value $3,000 - 3,300.