Is this worth anything?... I have a Mormon 10 Dollar Gold Coin, I've attached both pictures of both sides of it. One one side it's engraved "To . The . Lord . Holiness" with a weird eye like emblem in the middle. On the other side it says "Pure . Gold. Ten . Dollars" and has hands shaking with 1849 under it. Can someone tell me the value they think it could possibly be worth in this condition? FRONT PICTURE <---click to view BACK PICTURE <----click to view This coin is extremely rare, it is very hard to find even any information on it, but here's what I was able to dig up. After James Marshall’s discovery of gold in California in 1848, a number of private minters jumped in to supply the ever-escalating need for a circulating coinage in that region. By the end of 1849 there were approximately eighteen of these private operations at work, almost all located in the San Francisco area. Coinage by these minters fell off sharply after the opening of the Assay Office and later, the San Francisco Mint. While no gold was discovered in Utah, Mormon prospectors brought large quantities of California gold back to the Salt Lake City area. Brigham Young conceived the idea of a distinctive Mormon coinage, and four denominations of two-and-one-half, five, ten, and twenty-dollar coins were struck in 1849-50. While the ten dollar pieces featured the legend PURE GOLD, the other denominations (which were struck later) displayed the initials G.S.L.C.P.G. These stood for “Great Salt Lake City Pure Gold,” an obvious misnomer as all the gold came from California. A second issue was produced in 1860 from bullion brought from strikes in Colorado. All the Mormon gold coins use religious symbols for the central design motifs, and the 1860 pieces use the Deseret alphabet (now extinct) to spell out the legend HOLINESS TO THE LORD. Mormon coins were the first of the Western territorials to be publicly vilified as lightweight and of low fineness. An assay performed on a group of more than $500 face value in Mormon coins in 1851 found the average ten-dollar piece contained only $8.52 in gold. When these figures became public knowledge, the coins were discounted 20-25% by bankers and merchants. Widespread melting followed, and today Mormon gold pieces are very rare, although circulated fives occasionally appear. EDITED--No offers to buy/sell/trade
yeah, well I wanna know if it's real and what it's worth, but yeah... EDITED--well that isn't allowed here so we won't even talk about it....thanks
I have to be skeptical of it's authenticity. The lettering looks way off to my eye. Not to mention they are beyond rare in that they are beyond the means of 99% of collectors. Have it authenticated if you believe it to be real and then have a reputable auction house sell it if it comes back authenticated. Best advise I can offer. Guy~
Alright thanks... do you know a good way how I can safely get it authenticated? ... I took this to my local coin collector here in Baker City, Oregon, and his eyes lit up, but he just wanted me to pawn it off to him for $500... so I decided to do some deep research first.
I also found this on Ebay, it's a 1849 $10.00 MORMON GOLD PIECE - SOUVENIR HISTORICAL If you click the picture and look at the link, you'll find the souvenir is almost an exact replica of my coin, except for my coin has LEAD in it (to compensate for Gold weight in the 1800s because it was not its true value of ten dollars in gold)
It looks like one of the many cast fake varieties of these LDS coins which pervade in our fair hobby. The lettering is off on the piece, in addition the colour looks wrong. Many of these were created in the 1970's on up to the present day and have been sold by Rust Rare Coins in SLC as souvenirs. BTW might wanna know that James Marshall, discoverer of gold was also LDS - a little known secret.
well that is very useful knowledge, I really appreciate your help. My next question then is there a picture of a real Mormon, Pure Gold Ten Dollars coin available anywhere on the internet where I can compare my piece?... also, I know for fact we've had this coin in our family longer then the 1970s, but that still doesn't mean it's genuine.
One of the major things I question about this coin, on the To The Lord Holiness side... The hat is pointed instead of rounded, and the ears are already rounded... a picture of an accredited version of this coin would greatly help determine it's authenticity.
I don't know much about these, but I agree with some of the other posters that it is probably a fake. The reason I say that is because all the high points appear to be a grayish color. It looks like it was gold plated and the plating has been worn off the high points. I could be wrong though.
There are approximately 50 records of sales of LDS $2.50 and $5.00 coins on Heritages website with images. There are no $10s on there, but there maybe on Stacks.
I would agree with most others that the coin looks to be a cast fake. BUt the most knowledgeable person I know of regarding these coins is Bob Cambell here in Salt Lake. If you wish to contact him it's easy, just use 411 and ask for the number of All About Coins on 21st South.
