3102

Rainbow!

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:1,050.00 - 1,400.00 USD
Rainbow!
SOLD
1,125.00USD+ (225.00) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2021 Mar 11 @ 21:58UTC-8 : PST/AKDT
Lot: 3102
Year: 1853
Denom: G$1
Title: Rainbow!
Description: 1853 DERI octagonal 1 Dollar, BG-514, Die State II (vertical crack on obverse down from truncation through 1st star). PCGS AU58. Head of Liberty leans back, 8 stars around, coronet points nearly to middle of top edge; CALIFORNIA GOLD/ DERI around 1/ DOLLAR/ 1853. M. Deriberpie, the maker of an extensive series of signed octagonal dollars, was arrested on April 12, 1853 for making them—together with his associates Antoine Louis Nouizillet and Isadore Routhier—and charged with counterfeiting. The police found “a number of dies elegantly executed…in the house of one of them on Broadway.” Though the exact disposition of this case is unknown, it is obvious from the lots that follow, some dated 1854, that he beat the rap. He and his partners evidently used more than one press at once, setting them up simultaneously, then tearing down the setups to strike half dollars and returning the dies to a die box; latter strikings of dollars would result in random die marriages of all dies still in use. (This seems to be the only explanation as to why Deriberpie would need so many dies, and why die marriages exist with broken and new dies seemingly struck “out of order.”)

A specimen of this exact type was recovered from the wreck of the sidewheel steamer S.S. Winfield Scott, which sailed December 1, 1853.

Shocking Rainbow toning—as much as can be expected on a gold coin—violet, rose, yellow, blue! A Showpiece. Faintest traces of wear, consistent with the grade. PCGS AU58 William C. O’Connor (PCGS# 10491).

Low Estimate: 1050
High Estimate: 1400
Grading Co: PCGS
Gr: AU
Gr2: 58
OGH:
PCGS#: 10491
NGC#:
Cert#: 40625077
Pedigree/Collection: The William C. O'Connor Collection