So-Called Dollar Discussions
Shevlin, Holabird, Heritage, Stacks, and others...
Quote from Pioneer on April 30, 2012, 9:00 pmJeff's site has a picture and sold-price archive, as does Heritage (ha.com) and Stacks-Bowers (stacksbowers.com). These archives are of great value to looking at research on SCDs and their sale prices. One of the most cool past auctions was the 2008 Weber auction conducted by Holabird in Reno, NV. The catalogues were created by Jeff and are a fantastic guide to some really rare SCD and slugs.
This post on the Ostheimer auctions around 2010 is quite informative...
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/916909/can-anyone-provide-information-on-the-ostheimer-collection-of-so-called-dollars
Jeff's site has a picture and sold-price archive, as does Heritage (ha.com) and Stacks-Bowers (stacksbowers.com). These archives are of great value to looking at research on SCDs and their sale prices. One of the most cool past auctions was the 2008 Weber auction conducted by Holabird in Reno, NV. The catalogues were created by Jeff and are a fantastic guide to some really rare SCD and slugs.
This post on the Ostheimer auctions around 2010 is quite informative...
Quote from Pioneer on March 23, 2025, 2:05 pmI had the opportunity to meet with Fred Holabird this past week, and there is a collector planning on consigning some nice slug facsimiles in the next year. If you are a collector of these (all cataloged by Tom Jankovsky in 2008), I would keep an eye out.
As you probably know, during the California Gold rush, no U.S. Mint existed in California in the early 1850s. Augustus Humbert (appointed U.S. Assayer for California by the U.S. Treasury Department) became responsible for minting gold coins as his San Francisco assay office. He began issuing $50 gold pieces known as “slugs” (due to their large size and weight) to help facilitate trade and commerce for miners and pioneers in California. These slugs provided a standardized government-backed currency that became more accepted over trade with impure gold nuggets and privately minted gold coins. The U.S. Mint began operations in San Francisco in 1854. These original slugs are worth six-seven figures.
The Irvine and Jachens (I&J) metal working company, established in downtown San Francisco by J.C. Irvine, are the key maker to know of slug facsimilies. They made it through the 1906 SF earthquake and fire to continue their slug facsimile projection for the Panama Pacific Exposition!
All early Irvine & Jachens slug facsimiles have a design representative of the Augustus Humbert $50 Octagonal Gold of the 1850s which had an Eagle on the obverse. Apparently, the early design was executed so well that the Federal government requested the dies used in order to nullify any attempts at counterfeiting, and facsimile language was added.
I like to big using icollector.com and invaluable.com when Holabird Western Americana has their auctions.
Keep an eye on: https://www.holabirdamericana.com/
I had the opportunity to meet with Fred Holabird this past week, and there is a collector planning on consigning some nice slug facsimiles in the next year. If you are a collector of these (all cataloged by Tom Jankovsky in 2008), I would keep an eye out.
As you probably know, during the California Gold rush, no U.S. Mint existed in California in the early 1850s. Augustus Humbert (appointed U.S. Assayer for California by the U.S. Treasury Department) became responsible for minting gold coins as his San Francisco assay office. He began issuing $50 gold pieces known as “slugs” (due to their large size and weight) to help facilitate trade and commerce for miners and pioneers in California. These slugs provided a standardized government-backed currency that became more accepted over trade with impure gold nuggets and privately minted gold coins. The U.S. Mint began operations in San Francisco in 1854. These original slugs are worth six-seven figures.
The Irvine and Jachens (I&J) metal working company, established in downtown San Francisco by J.C. Irvine, are the key maker to know of slug facsimilies. They made it through the 1906 SF earthquake and fire to continue their slug facsimile projection for the Panama Pacific Exposition!
All early Irvine & Jachens slug facsimiles have a design representative of the Augustus Humbert $50 Octagonal Gold of the 1850s which had an Eagle on the obverse. Apparently, the early design was executed so well that the Federal government requested the dies used in order to nullify any attempts at counterfeiting, and facsimile language was added.
I like to big using icollector.com and invaluable.com when Holabird Western Americana has their auctions.
Keep an eye on: https://www.holabirdamericana.com/