1855 California Gold $50 - $50 Wass, Molitor & Co.
Strike Type
Coin Details
Auction Record
- Price realized
- $411,250
- Sold
- Grade
- MS63
- Auction house
- Heritage Auctions
Description
This is the 1855 Wass, Molitor & Co. fifty-dollar gold piece, which is round rather than octagonal. 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. It appeared in the spring of 1855; the Sacramento Daily Union of April 30, 1855 described it as plain and expected it to replace the octagonal slugs. The edge is reeded. Catalogue number: K-9. PCGS number 10363.
Cross References
K-9
External References
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