Christopher Bechtler Five Dollar Gold Pieces

About This Coin

C. Bechtler five-dollar pieces: the beaded border pieces of the old standard (Kagin K-14, K-15), the 140-grain CAROLINA GOLD pieces with the obverse dated AUGUST 1. 1834. (K-Transitional, K-16 to K-19), the 134-grain piece with a star (K-20) and the 128-grain GEORGIA GOLD pieces (K-21 to K-23). Christopher Bechtler, a goldsmith and watchmaker born in Pforzheim in Baden in 1782, came to the United States in 1829 and set up a private mint in Rutherford County, North Carolina (Wikipedia); Greysheet dates his first coins to June 1831. The pieces carry no year of issue. They name the maker and state their weight in grains and their fineness in carats, and the Mint found C. Bechtler five-dollar pieces between one and six percent below their stated value, three percent on average, and his dollars worth 95 to 97 cents (Eckfeldt and Du Bois, 1850). After the federal gold standard was lowered in 1834 he cut his weights to 140 grains at 20 carats, 134 at 21 or 128 at 22 for five dollars and 28 grains for a dollar; several five-dollar dies carry the date AUGUST 1. 1834., the day the new federal standard took effect, and kept it on later issues, so the date does not give the year of striking (Dickeson; Greysheet).