CIVIL WAR SAN FRANCISCO MINT GOLD

San Francisco Branch Mint Civil War Gold $10, $5, and $2 1/2.

Recently rare gold expert and author Doug Winter had a beautiful PCGS MS 64 1865-S double eagle with a Brother Jonathan pedigree for sale, that brought back a flood of memories. In February of 2013, I wrote an article for Coin World on the wreck that began with the following passage, “On July 30, 1865, the side wheel steamship S.S. Brother Jonathan was violently impaled on a rock pinnacle off Crescent City, California. Driven by wind and waves she teetered back and forth before breaking free from the rock. Ripped open by the collision, a wall of water rushed into her hull. Mortally wounded, she was at the mercy of the elements and drifted away from the scene. Panicked passengers scrambled to her deck. Only one of several lifeboats was successfully launched from her wildly pitching hull, and in less than an hour she plunged to the bottom with a great loss of life. Her sinking remains California’s greatest maritime tragedy.”

My history with the ship dated back to the 1990's when I was given the opportunity to do research on the wreck for Q. David Bower's The Treasure Ship S.S. Brother Jonathan, Her Life and Loss, 1850-1865, a book that I highly recommend for anyone interested in this shipwreck. In May of 1999, Bower's and Merena conducted the auction sale of the S.S. Brother Jonathan's golden treasure awarded to Deep Sea Research, whose divers recovered the bounty. The majority of the coins made available to the collecting public were Mint State 1865-S double eagles. However, I do remember that an impressive, MS- 64 1865-S over inverted 186, eagle, (still the finest known example) was also recovered and sold. While a rare coin in its own right, the 1865-S normal date eagle is even rarer.

Once lost in the shadows of the 1861-1865- S double eagles, the collector demand for San Francisco Branch Mint Civil War gold eagles, half eagles, and quarter eagles has increased exponentially in the last decade. The rarity of these coins is no longer going unnoticed by rare gold collectors. For the majority of these dates in this 14 piece set, properly graded AU 55-58 pieces are the best that a collector can hope to attain with two notable stoppers. The 1864-S eagle and half eagle are out of the financial reach of most collectors when they become available.

There are currently no known 1864-S eagles in Mint State condition and properly graded AU pieces are prohibitively rare. On July 1st, 2,500 eagles were delivered from the coiner and 3,880 half eagles on the 11th. According to Winter, few 1864-S half eagles exist over EF 45. By some small numismatic miracle there is an Uncirculated 1864-S half eagle that is of stellar quality from the Bass II Sale. Survival rates for both issues is around two dozen each.

The 1862-S is the second rarest San Francisco Branch Mint Civil War half eagle with a mintage of under 10,000 pieces and most surviving examples are found in a well worn state. While 8,000 1861-S half eagles were delivered from the coiner on August 26th and 10,000 on November 13th no Uncirculated pieces are currently known.

The rarest quarter eagle from the group is the 1863-S. Doug Winter estimates that less than 1% of the coin's original mintage survived just barely edging out the 1862-S quarter eagle in terms of rarity.

Collectors interested in San Francisco Branch Mint Civil War eagles, half eagles and quarter eagles, will have to make an effort to find pieces with naturally toned surfaces or coins that have not been processed with an abrasive substance.

Outside of shipwreck recovery pieces, most of these coins were not frozen in time and as a result were abraded while circulating heavily in commercial channels. Still, each coin represents a historic testament to California's continued gold production during this nation's great conflict.

In 1861, there was a shortage of small gold coinage back East. So for over a month, the Philadelphia Mint reportedly devoted three days a week to striking half and quarter eagles, etc., instead of the dominant double eagles. This resulted in larger mintage figures for 1861 Philadelphia Mint eagles, half eagles and quarter eagles, versus their San Francisco Branch Mint counterparts of the same date.

As the Civil War dragged on, less California gold was being shipped from San Francisco by sea to Panama and thence by rail over to Aspinwall and by sea again to New York City and on to the Assay Office. Here it would have been refined and sent to the Philadelphia Mint for coinage. Instead the California bullion was being shipped direct to London from Aspinwall. Thus most notably in 1863, 1864 and 1865, Philadelphia Mint coinage numbers for eagles, half eagles and quarter eagles plummeted to numbers that are generally less than their San Francisco Branch Mint counterparts. The exceptions being the low mintage 1864-S eagles and half eagles.

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