1898 So-Called Dollar HK-843, AK Souvenir Gold

Coin Details

Auction Record

$1,175 MS67 06-08-2017 Heritage Auctions

Description

HK-843 is an Alaska Gold Souvenir from the series of small gold tokens produced between 1897 and 1911 by M.E. Hart (Mary Elizabeth Hart), later sold by Farran Zerbe at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. These tokens were produced by M.E. Hart (Mary Elizabeth Hart) and later sold by the legendary numismatic promoter Farran Zerbe as part of his 'Coins of the Golden West' set at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. The complete set of 36 pieces, offered in a Tiffany frame, encompassed Alaska pieces plus Minerva Bears, Indian Bears, and souvenir gold tokens from Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. Many catalog numbers (HK-839 through HK-849) are known from no surviving examples, making the complete series virtually impossible to assemble. The Alaska Gold Souvenirs occupy a unique niche in the so-called dollar catalog as among the smallest and most precious-metal-intensive pieces in the series. Their connection to the Klondike Gold Rush — one of the great adventure stories of American history — combined with genuine gold content and extreme rarity for many varieties makes them highly sought after by collectors of both so-called dollars and Western Americana. So-called dollars acquired their name because they are not true dollar coins but rather privately issued medals that approximate the size and weight of U.S. silver dollars. The collecting specialty emerged in the early 20th century and was formalized by the Hibler-Kappen catalog, which organized hundreds of diverse pieces — from exposition medals to political tokens to private monetary experiments — into a coherent collecting framework.

Rarity Notes

Alaska Souvenir Gold pieces from the 1898 period are scarce to rare, with gold content ensuring that many were eventually melted. The HK-numbered pieces represent the cataloged so-called dollar-sized variants of a much larger family of Alaska gold souvenirs. Gold examples are particularly desirable to collectors of both so-called dollars and Alaska territorial numismatics.

Cross References

HK-843; PCGS #643581