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UTMormon 1850 $5 Dollar AU 58

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:22,500.00 USD Estimated At:45,000.00 - 50,000.00 USD
UTMormon 1850 $5 Dollar AU 58
Preview
Holabird-Kagin Americana Office
3555 Airway Drive Suite#309
Reno, NV 89511
Thursday April 11, 10am-6pm
* Preview also available by appointment

Live Auction
Friday & Saturday
April 12-13, 2012
9am PDT starting time, both days

Location
Atlantis Casino & Resort
Grand Ballroom #4
3800 S. Virginia Street
Reno, NV 89502

Lot Pick Up
Holabird-Kagin Americana Office
3555 Airway Drive Suite #309
Reno, NV 89511
Sunday April 14th, 10am-1pm

1850 The first enterprise to produce private gold coins from California gold dust was not located in that area at all, but in the Territory of Deseret--later to be known as Utah. Not only were the first western private gold coins issued by the Deseret Assay Office under the auspices of the Mormon Church, but they preceded the private coinage in California by over five months. In addition, unlike other private coining operations, the coins of the Deseret Assay Office were conceived, executed, and distributed by a religious community from gold dust deposited as part of their church`s tithes. The source of gold was the Mormon Battalion, a party of approximately 500 volunteers who fought in the war with Mexico that ended July 1848. Meanwhile, another Mormon party had arrived in San Francisco on the Ship Brooklyn with 238 Latter-Day Saints including Sam Brannan. Prior to the Saints` immigration, the population of Yerba Buena--later to be known as San Francisco--was 200. This new party of 238 Mormons effectively made the city, as historian Bancroft observed, Largely a Mormon town.

John Sutter contracted an engineer by the name of James Wilson Marshall to build a sawmill for his fort situated fifty miles up the American River. It was this same James Marshall, a Mormon who discovered gold there on January 24, 1848. It was another Mormon, Sam Brannan, who publicised this event. On December 12, 1848, John Kay minted the first twenty five $10 Mormon coins. Then on September 12, 1849 coining resumed minting $2.50, $5 and $20 pieces! In January 1850, the assayer of the New Orleans Mint, William P. Hort, received a specimen of the $20 gold piece. To his dismay, he discovered that the coin was not only of improper purity, being .892 fine vs. 900 fine for Unietd States coinage, but it was also under weight by some 85 grains or approximately 20 percent. The best records of the debased nature of the Mormon coins were released by Jacob R. Eckfeldt and William E. Dubois in their important work, New Varieties of Gold and Silver Coins, published in 1850.

The following new 1850 $5 gold pieces varying somewhat in design to the 1849 $5 gold pieces were struck sometime after March 15, 1850. It is interesting to note that the three Mormon fives from the Garrett Collection were 1849 111.2 grains, 1850 109.3 grains, and 1860 113.7 grains. The 1850 coin design was modified from the original 1849 piece. Brigham Young, John Key and John Taylor devised an inscription for their gold currency. On one side the phrase `HOLINESS TO THE LORD` encircling the emblem of Priesthood and three-pointed Phrygian Crown over the all seeing eye of Jehovah. On the reverse encircling clapsed hands, the emblem of friendship, the words `PURE GOLD` and the denominationof the coin. For the complete history of Mormon Coinage and this particular coin`s background, please refer to Private Gold Coins and Patterns of the United States, published in 1981 by Donald H. Kagin, Ph.D. Serial# 3168570-002 HKA#63930