1849 $5 Moffat & Co. MS(PCGS#10240)

1849 $5 Moffat & Co. MS (PCGS#10240)

The March 2012 Baltimore Auction

详细说明: 1849 Moffat & Co. $5 Gold. K-4. Rarity-5. EF-40 (NGC). Medium golden surfaces are evenly worn but free of visible circulation marks despite what was evidently a long stay in commerce during the Gold Rush era. Moffat & Co. was comprised of John L. Moffat, Joseph R. Curtis, Philo H. Perry, and Samuel H. Ward, all of whom arrived in California around June 1849 after setting sail from New York City in February of that year. By late summer the firm was issuing $10 -- these came first -- and $5 gold coins with devices based on the circulating federal gold coinage of the era. The dies were by Albert Kuner, a Bavarian immigrant who reached San Francisco around July 1849 and was almost immediately put to work by Moffat (and other firms). Breen's <em>Encyclopedia </em>(1988) notes: "Moffat & Co. consistently offered to redeem any of its coins in federal specie at par, with the result that they passed at face value with never a discount, alone [at the time] among the products of California private mints." A pleasing example all told, and an ideal stepping stone into the fascinating world of private "territorial" gold coinage.