Mormon Gold (Utah) Regular Strikes (1849-1860)

About This Coin

The Mormon gold pieces themselves: 1849 pieces of two and a half, five, ten and twenty dollars (Kagin K-1 to K-4) and five-dollar pieces of 1850 and 1860 (K-5, K-6). In Salt Lake City the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struck gold pieces of two and a half, five, ten and twenty dollars from gold brought from California, beginning late in 1848 (Wikipedia; Greysheet). The 1849 pieces show an eye beneath a cap with HOLINESS TO THE LORD on one side and clasped hands with the date, the value and G.S.L.C.P.G., for Great Salt Lake City Pure Gold, on the other (Eckfeldt and Du Bois, 1850). The first pieces tested at the Philadelphia Mint were about 899 thousandths fine, alloyed only with the silver natural to the gold, and well short of their stated weight; a later mixed parcel counted at $562.50 yielded $479.20 at the Mint (Eckfeldt and Du Bois, 1850 and 1852). Wikipedia reports that coining stopped when Governor Alfred Cumming ordered it in 1861.