Auctions

A small gold coin with a face value of $2.50 when it was struck in northern Georgia in 1830 sold for a record price of $480,000 to an anonymous Georgia collector in an auction in Atlanta Thursday night, February 27, 2020. It is one of the finest known of less than two dozen surviving examples privately struck by Milledgeville, Georgia cotton gin mill manufacturer Templeton Reid during the state’s historic 19th-century gold rush.

“The Georgia and North Carolina gold rush period started in 1828, about two decades before the California Gold Rush, and this important gold piece was made in 1830 to help alleviate a coin shortage at the time in Georgia,” explained Donald Kagin, Ph.D., president of Kagin’s, Inc. (www.Kagins.com) of Tiburon, California, the auction house that sold the coin.

The previous record price for an example of this type of coin was $329,000 in 2013. The name of the winning bidder who paid $480,000 for this one was not disclosed.

“Reid was a multi-talented entrepreneur, a cotton gin manufacturer, gunsmith, metallurgist and assayer who struck coins in denominations of $2.50, $5 and $10. These historic items were the first privately issued gold coins in the United States,” explained Kagin, author of the reference book, Private Gold Coins and Patterns of the United States.

The reverse of the 1830 $2.50 PCGS MS61 gold coin struck by private assayer, Templeton Reid. (Photo courtesy Kagin’s)

Only a little larger than a modern five-cent denomination coin, the Templeton Reid $2.50 gold piece was independently authenticated by experts at Professional Coin Grading Service ( www.PCGS.com) and certified Mint State 61 (on a 1 to 70 grading scale).

“It had been part of private coin collections the Midwest and on the West Coast for more than 50 years, but now this piece is coming back home to Georgia,” said Kagin.

“Despite his inventiveness, Templeton Reid’s gold coins eventually and unfortunately were shunned by the public when a critic falsely claimed they did not contain enough gold. He halted production just a few months after he began striking them,” explained Kagin. “But today, they are national numismatic treasures.”

The auction was conducted in conjunction with the American Numismatic Association 2020 National Money Show, February 27-29, in Atlanta.

The finest PCGS MS-61 certified 1830 $2.50 Templeton Reid pioneer gold coin is being offered in the official American Numismatic Association National Money Show auction by Kagin’s Auction on February 27th in Atlanta, Georgia. The privately issued mint state specimen was struck just a few miles away from the auction venue in Milledgeville as a consequence of the first major U.S. gold rush which occurred in the southern Appellation area of Georgia and North Carolina from 1828 through the 1830s.

At that time this underdeveloped area existed largely on a barter economy as precious metal coins were shipped to Europe or hoarded by the banks to pay import duties. These rich deposits brought new wealth to the area but it was difficult to use the gold dust and nuggets in trade and difficult to transport to the nearest mint in Philadelphia.

In July, 1830, Georgia metallurgist Templeton Reid became the first to answer this pressing need for an adequate medium exchange by melting down the gold dust and striking $2 ½, $5, and $10 gold pieces. Unfortunately, unsubstantiated allegations of the coins being underweight and unconstitutional eventually led to most of the coins being refused or melted and forced Reid to close down just a few months later, leaving a legacy of privately issued pioneer gold coins for more than 30 other merchants over almost 35 years to follow.

Other pioneer gold coins in the Kagin’s auction includes three other Georgia coins struck by Christopher Bechtler, California gold rush coinage highlighted by a mint state Augustus Humbert 1851 $50 gold “slug”, Mormon gold coins and coins from the Colorado gold rush including the iconic Pikes Peak $10. Shipwreck treasure highlighted by a 97.77 Kellogg & Humbert ingot are also offered along with ingots and nuggets.

Other numismatic series offered are Early American medals, U.S. Colonial and Federal coinage from ½ cents through gold.

U.S. Paper currency, Confederate Currency and Errors are part of Friday night’s session.

Also featured on February 28th are collections of Lesher Dollars, So-called dollars, tokens, good-for mirrors, Civil War, Hard Times and Political Tokens as well as over 250 U.S. Gold and Silver medals.

The sale concludes with over 75 lots of Odd & Curious/Primitive money from the Ken Hallenbeck collection including 7 Yap Stones, three Money Trees and a Chinese Ming Note.

Catalogs are available on-line here or by contacting Kagin’s Auctions at (888) 852-4467.

View the online virtual catalog here.

Scarce in all grades, the 1853 Dahlonega quarter eagle is rare in Mint State and unknown any finer than the MS62 level. The latest Doug Winter reference pegs the number of surviving pieces in all grades at 85 to 105 coins — a figure echoed by PCGS CoinFacts, which suggests that under 100 pieces are known. Just 3,179 pieces were struck. We have sold just one MS62 example in the past 13 years, and that was five years ago.

This brassy-gold example shows a minimum of marks for the grade, with a thin line of mint grease that passes through the right side of star 7 to Liberty’s hair. Some flecks of deep-gray build-up surround the stars, while soft min luster glows from both sides. The obverse strike is unusually sharp at the stars, with the normal soft definition on the eagle’s legs and talons as well as the curls below LIBER as is always the case for the 1853-D. Neither NGC nor PCGS report a finer submission.

Learn more at the Newman Numismatic Portal at Washington University in St. Louis.

An 1849-C G$1 Open Wreath MS62 PCGS Secure, one of the rarest and most valuable coins in the U.S. gold series, is the centerpiece of Heritage Auctions Aug. 13, 2015, Platinum Night offerings from the company’s Aug. 12-16, 2015 ANA U.S. Coins Auctions in Chicago, IL.

“This is an issue of the rarest gold dollar ever made by the Charlotte Mint and the finest known surviving example,” said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auctions. “As such, it will be very hotly sought-after by the top collectors. Someone is going to walk away with a centerpiece for their cabinet when this auction is all said and done.”