1852 Wass Molitor, Sm Head Gold Half Eagle
Strike Type
Coin Details
Auction Record
- Price realized
- $180,000
- Sold
- Grade
- MS60
- Auction house
- Heritage Auctions
Description
This is the 1852 Wass, Molitor & Co. five-dollar gold piece with the small head. Count S. C. Wass and A. P. Molitor, Hungarian exiles with mining training, opened a smelting and assay office in San Francisco in November 1851. In January 1852 they began five-dollar pieces of .880 fine gold, made slightly heavy to keep full value, and soon added ten-dollar pieces; the coins copy the federal Liberty head with W.M.&CO. on the coronet. They coined nothing in 1853 or 1854, and in 1855 struck twenty-dollar pieces and a round fifty-dollar piece with a Liberty head and 50 DOLLARS and 900 THOUS. inside a wreath. Adams knew one type of the five-dollar piece with minor die varieties; Greysheet lists small and large heads (K-1 and K-2). Catalogue number: K-1. PCGS number 10339.
Cross References
K-1
External References
Error Varieties
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