Recently I started thinking about an exhibit of the eight, normal sized $5 gold coins which were issued from each of the United States. Purists will say that West Point does not count, but it has issued many $5 commemorative gold coins which are the same size as the pre-1933 gold pieces. When I looked into this exhibit more, I discovered that the $5 had not just been issued from the eight locations. It has been issued from ALL of the buildings which were located at those locations. For example there have been four Philadelphia Mints. If you count the modern commemorative coins, all four have issued $5 gold coins. When I looked at my collection, I had at least one coin from each of those buildings except the first San Francisco Mint. That set me to searching. Back in the early days, the California State Government did not issue any charters to banks which could issue paper money. That met that everyone used gold on an every day basis. The result was that the early San Francisco Mint $5 gold coins worked for a living. Very few are known in Mint State, and even the AUs are scarce. I decided to look for an S-mint $5 gold coin from the 1850s. I saw a number of them on-line, but the grading was what you might call "optimistic." I spotted this piece in a recent Stacks' auction. I ended up paying my maximum bid (What else is new?), but the coin turned out to be better than I expected. It is PCGS graded AU-55, with a green CAC sticker. The scratch you see on the cheek is not really there. Somehow the camera invented it.
Even if it were areal scratch it wouldn't bother me. The coin is so appealing that I could look right past it. Excellent addition to your collection. Bruce
