1869 G$1 MS(PCGS#7568)

June 2021 U.S. Coins Auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

2324

等级

MS64

价格

13,438

详细说明

1869 Gold Dollar. MS-64 (NGC). Lovely Choice-quality surfaces exhibit enhancing blushes of reddish-rose iridescence to dominant golden-apricot color. Lustrous and satiny in finish with sharp striking detail throughout the design. In 1869, gold was front row, center in the nation's economy. The "Golden Spike" joining the Transcontinental Railroad was driven on May 10 at Promontory Summit in Utah Territory. A few months later one of the seminal financial crises of the Gilded Age occurred, "Black Friday." Financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to convince Treasury officials to keep the price of gold artificially high by keeping the government's holdings of the metal in the commodities market while ostensibly allowing domestic farmers to have a competitive advantage in foreign markets. In reality, this move gave Gould and Fisk ample opportunity to buy up interest in the metal, forcing the premium on gold to increase by one-third. President Ulysses Grant caught wind of the scheme in September and immediately ordered the release of $4,000,000 in gold on Friday, September 24. This caused the price to fall back to normal levels, ruining many speculators trying to take advantage of the run up in the market. Today, "Black Friday" is more closely associated with the post-Thanksgiving shopping holiday rather than the financial collapse that spawned the phrase. Despite a moderate spike in production at Philadelphia in 1861 and 1862, the gold dollar was a denomination in decline by the 1860s. After 1861, production was confined to the Philadelphia Mint with one exception (the 1870-S), and not for any real need in circulation. The gold dollars of 1869 are typical of these later Type III issues with only 5,900 circulation strikes coming off the Mint's presses on a single day, February 15. They saw very little commercial use but were instead popular as gifts or in jewelry. Bowers notes that worn examples below the EF level are actually quite rare. Many others show evidence of time spent in jewelry while a modest quantity of higher grade examples are clustered between AU-58 and MS-62 (although no doubt a few resubmissions are included). The same situation is likely at play at the Choice level and higher, where the actual rarity may be much greater than the reported numbers suggest. This lovely MS-64 example represents a significant find for the astute gold enthusiast. NGC Census: 9; with a further nine finer through MS-68. PCGS# 7568. NGC ID: 25D5. Click here for certification details from NGC.