1855 $10 Wass Molitor MS(PCGS#10354)

December 2025 Showcase Auction - The James A. Stack, Sr. Collection Part I

Auktionator

Stack's Bowers

Losnummer

22247

Erhaltungsgrad

AU53

Preis

28.800

Losbeschreibung

An incredibly attractive example with bright golden-wheat coloration throughout. Uncommonly sharp for the type, with impressive detail to Liberty's portrait and a fully legible legend on the reverse. A minor scuff is evident at the upper left reverse border, at the letters CA in CALIFORNIA, but the surfaces are pleasantly smooth during in-hand viewing for a circulated $10 gold of this type.<p>After Congress finally granted approval for a branch mint to be established in San Francisco, operations commenced in March 1854, although it would be some time before the San Francisco Mint would be able to strike enough coins to relieve the region's monetary shortages. After an especially lengthy layoff at the Mint, in March 1855 a group of prominent merchants and bankers petitioned Wass, Molitor & Co. to resume coining operations. The firm responded with a notice in the <em>Alta California</em> stating that it was prepared to do so within a week. Shortly thereafter, Wass, Molitor & Co. resumed striking coins and produced $10, $20, and round $50 gold pieces. These proved to be popular and circulated widely at the time.<p>By late 1855, however, Wass, Molitor & Co.'s coins were no longer required. Sometime in late 1855 or early 1856, Wass, Molitor & Co. dissolved and reorganized as Wass, Usznay & Co. Around this time Wass left the region, but eventually returned to continue the assay business with his son. Agoston Molitor left for London in 1856 and did not return to the United States. Many Wass, Molitor & Co. coins remained in circulation. Some, as here, left San Francisco in August 1857 aboard the S.S. <em>Sonora</em> to Panama where the passengers and cargo took the Panama Railroad to Aspinwall on the Atlantic side, to board the S.S. <em>Central America</em>. The rest is history.