SOLD
205,000.00USDto l****1+ buyer's premium (35,875.00)
This item SOLD at 2017 Sep 15 @ 22:52UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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Cast. Fineness: 20 ¾ CARAT. Weight: 444.0 grains. Dimensions: approximately 35.0 mm long, 15.0 mm wide, and 3.7 mm thick. This deep lustrous yellow- gold specimen -- once among the nearly countless numismatic jewels in the Louis Eliasberg, Sr. Collection -- is deep yellow-gold with warm orange toning in the face’s design area; the four edges and the back are unadorned.
Indeed, Mr. Eliasberg considered this Moffat & Co. ingot to be among the most important coins in his incredible collection. The interesting denomination of this “Days of ‘49” gold ingot, $16, would have been familiar at the time to anyone in California who had ever been out East where and ounce of gold commonly traded for $16.(It wouldn’t surprise us to find these bars were cut into smaller parts for small change, ala the prevalent Spanish silver 8 reales coins of the era, which might help account for the rarity of the ingots today.) The $16 value ingots were struck from a die that produced two sunken cartouches with a raised bar between. The upper cartouche reads MOFFAT & Co and the lower cartouche featured a $ within. The fineness of 20 ¾ CARAT was hand-sunken into the raised bar, and the value of 16.00 was hand-sunken in the lower cartouche. Fine vertical lines are present as a background in both cartouches and can be seen within the numerals 16.00 where they were stamped. These $16 ingots saw much circulation in the region in and around San Francisco, and are known in two other denominations: $9.45, 21 7/16 CARAT on face, 10 DWT. 6 GRS stamped on back; and $14.25, 21 ¾ CARAT on face, DWT. / 15. And GRS. / 6 stamped on back – both of those varieties are unique and reside at the Smithsonian Institution.
John L. Moffat was associated with the firm of Wilmarth, Moffat & Curtis in New York City before joining with Joseph R. Curtis, Philo H. Perry and Samuel H. Ward to melt and coin gold in San Francisco. They opened up at Clay and Dupont streets in May of 1849 and almost immediately started purchasing, refining and converting gold dust and nuggets into bars and ingots to ship East for sale. Soon after producing a few odd denominations (see above) they decided to make roughly one ounce gold bars denominated at $16 (as mentioned earlier, the price at the time of an ounce of gold in the commercial districts back East). Clearly not many were produced and most were melted as today we can trace only 20 specimens including at least five which are impounded in museums.
PCGS lists just 10 certification events for this $16 ingot rarity; none of them Mint State. The present ingot is a rarity from the earliest days of the California Gold Rush, one of a determinably small number known, and an ingot that could easily disappear back into an advanced private gold cabinet once the bidding has ended. We can only hope that any collector who has his or her eyes on this early treasure -- a coin that probably passed through the hands of more than one original ‘49er -- has the temerity to stay in the bidding when the bidding gets tough!
PCGS Population: 3; 7 finer (AU-58 finest) although we must confess that we see little difference between this specimen and several of the others
Ex. Eliasberg
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5001 Great America Pkwy, Santa Clara, California, 95051, United States
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Sales Tax on currency to non-dealers and coins under $1500 shipped to CA or $1000 to MD per tax accountant
Taxes:
| Tax | Rate | Desc. |
| CA |
6% |
California Sales Tax |
Buyer's Premiums:
| From (Incl.) | To (Excl.) | Premium |
| 0.00 |
Infinite |
17.5% |
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00_Sep2017_WCA_FrMatter.indd 11 8/25/17 7:41 PM
xii Kagin’s Auctions
Terms and Conditions of Sale (Continued)
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