The nominal coin in U.S. chronicle owes its life to two of the chief gold rushes. That coin is the gold cash, a mere pipsqueak physically, but a giant in terms of record, curiosity and help.
The groundwork was laid for this fascinating coin in the Carolinas and Georgia, where the land's first big gold scuttle took place in the early 1800s. That scuttled had a chief influence on United States money, leading to the establishment of two aspect mints in the locality-in Charlotte, North Carolina, and in Dahlonega, Georgia-and a strong boost in the number of gold coins being made by the national government.
The first gold dollars made in the United States were privately minted issues created about 1830 by a German colonizer named Alt Christoph Bechtler who operated the trinkets shop in Rutherfordton, North Carolina. Finding that gold dust and nuggets were the first form of exchange in the field, Bechtler ran a cycle of ads in the North Carolina Spectator and Western Advertiser donation to refine raw gold into coins for a nominal fee.
By 1840, Bechtler and his family had turned out more than $2.2 million worth of gold coins, of which about half were gold dollars. This was perfectly official under the untaken central statutes-but, even so, Uncle Sam began to inspect the Bechtlers closely. The victory of their venture led to call for government-supply gold cash coins. In 1836, Congress even authorized such coins, but Mint Director Robert M. Patterson disparate the idea vehemently and partial his compliance to salient a handful of patterns.
The gold money didn't take its place in the U.S. currency plan awaiting 1849, and yet another gold hurry-this one in California-provided the glimmer. The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848 eager Congress to inflate offered uses of the metal in U.S. penny and find some new ones.
Mint Director Patterson was still on the view and still opposite such currency, but this time his resistance was swept tangent. On March 3, 1849, Congress approved legislation authorizing not only gold dollars but also clone eagles-$20 gold pieces. Thus did the citizens's minimum and biggest recurring-topic gold coins emerge from Washing-ton's womb as fraternal twins.
The job of crafty both new coins chop to James Barton Longacre, the U.S. Mint's chief engraver. For both, he came up with a similar facade blueprint: a left-facing picture of Miss Liberty with a circlet, or small crown, in her curls. On the cash, she is bordered by 13 stars, symbolic of the 13 unique colonies. The buck's reverse is necessarily unfussy because of the coin's small amount: It bears the denomination 1 DOLLAR and the time within a simple garland, which is bordered by the inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
This pointed would wait in use pending 1854 before generous way to an "Indian Head" depiction and other modifications. The Indian led, in roll, would be enlarged two living later. Thus, there are three distinct types of gold dollars, with the "Liberty Head" kind of 1849-54 being known as "Type 1." Within the Type 1 change, there are also two important varieties in the gold dollars of 1849: Some have an "open" garland with ample freedom between the top of the garland and the number "1," while others have a "congested" circlet near tender the number.
During their six years of production, Type 1 gold dollars were struck at five different mints-Philadelphia (no mint blot), Charlotte (C), Dahlonega (D), New Orleans (O) and San Francisco (S)-but only the Philadelphia and Dahlonega mints issued them every year. San Francisco made them only in 1854, while Charlotte and New Orleans made them every year except 1854. The mintmark can be found below the headdress.
Mintages for the most part were relatively high at Philadelphia and New Orleans but much lesser at the other three mints. In 1850 and again in 1852, the Charlotte and Dahlonega twigs made fewer than 10,000 gold dollars each. The lowest mintage of all took place at Dahlonega in 1854, when a mere 2,935 examples were formed. Other foremost rarities embrace the 1853-D (with a mintage of 6,583) and the 1851-D (mintage 9,882).
Type 1 gold dollars are scarce but untaken in grades up through Mint State-64, but they're bloody in MS-65 and very rare above that direct. The uppermost relief points on the Type 1 gold dollar are the hair near the coronet and the tips of the leaves on the garland. These are where traces of attire first develop and, hence are major keys in determining grade. Although composed by court and mintmark in circulated grades, the curiosity of high grade pieces generally confines collectors to just one example for their lettering sets.
Proofs were not struck officially, but the behind Walter Breen, a famous numismatic researcher and scholar, reported that at slightest seven proofs were made in 1849 of the capture with open circlet and no letter L on the bust. He also knew of at slightest three proofs of the stopped wreath mode dated 1849. Proofs are also believed for 1850 and 1851, and at least one is known for 1854.
Throughout U.S. account, people have grumbled that silver dollars were too large and gray to transfer around. Gold dollars posed a dramatically different puzzle: at minus than three-quarters the mass of today's dime, they were so small they could certainly be absent. Make no blunder, while: These tiny coins had tremendous purchasing faculty equivalent to a stuffed day's wages or more for many Americans in the mid-1800s. They also like massive recognize from collectors today, for while they may be diminutive in amount, their rarity and cherish can be soaring.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Diameter: 13 millimeters Weight: 1.672 grams Composition: .900 gold.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .04837 scrap downright gold
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Akers, David W. United States Gold Coins, Volume I, Gold Dollars 1849-1889, Paramount Publications, Englewood, OH, 1975. Breen, Walter, Major Varieties of U. S. Gold Dollars, Hewitt Numismatic Printers, Chicago. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co., New York, 1966. Winter, Douglas, Gold Coins of the Charlotte Mint 1838-1861, DWN Publishing, Dallas, 1998. Winter, Douglas, Gold Coins of the Dahlonega Mint 1838-1861, DWN Publishing, Dallas, 1997. Winter, Douglas, New Orleans Mint Gold Coins: 1839-1909, Bowers & Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1992.
Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.
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