The Midwest Summer Sale 2010
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Please Note: A 15% Buyers' Premium is added to the hammer price of all lots in this sale.
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(About The Images)
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Lot Title:
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1852 $50 887 Thous. (Target Reverse, Reeded-Edge Variety) Austus Humbert U.S. ASSAY Office FIFTY DOLLS. PCGS Genuine.
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Description:
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Donald Kagin has explained that a bill was "passed on September 30, 1850, providing for a United States Assay Office to be established in San Francisco. This Office would have the authority to assay gold and stamp it with an appropriate seal to show its value." Establishment was simply for the purpose of smelting and assaying raw gold in the form of ingots upon which the assayer would place his stamp, certifying weight, fineness and intrinsic value at prevailing market rates. The obverse depicts an "Eagle in an attitude of defiance with the usual United Stated Shield resting upon a rock representing the Constitution - In the claws of the Eagle are the Olive Branch and the Arrows." Surrounding is the fineness, expressed as 887 thousandths, then UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the denomination FIFTY DOLLS, and at each of the straight edges of the coin are included the date 1852 and the words AUGUSTUS HUMBERT UNITED STATE ASSAYER OF GOLD CALIFORNIA. The reverse is designed as a mass of engine-turning, at the center of which is a small circular target. The term "slug" originated with Moffat & Co. and remains in popular use today to describe a large gold coin of fifty dollars face value. The Genuine-98 code indicates "damage", which is readily seen as bruises to the rim, as well as a broad, shallow and likely tooled dig near the center of the reverse. Very-fine details, or nearly so, overall.
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Low Estimate:
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$8,000.00 |
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High Estimate:
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$10,000.00 |
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Lot Status:
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Bidding has been closed for this lot. |
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Hammered Price: |
$10,100.00
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Price Realized:
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$11,615.00 |
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Price history for items of the same classification:
| Lot # | Auction | Current Bid or Hammer Price | Description |
| 1043 | The Midwest Summer Sale on 07/26/2013 | $60,000.00 |
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1852 $50 U.S. Assay, 887. PCGS AU-53.
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Eunice Peters Estate. "887" noted on the PCGS insert references the fineness statement on the motto above the eagle ("887 THOUS.") which, in the final iteration for the $50 Assay gold slug, was... |
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