1850 $10 Baldwin & Co.

Weight

NA

Diameter

NA

Thickness

NA

Material

Other

Shape

Round

Edge Type

Reeded

Technique

Struck

Front design

Cowboy (or Spanish vaquero)

Back design

Baldwin & Co. inscription, denomination, and date

Year of Minting

1850

Ruler

NA

Mint location

Philadelphia

Mint mark

NA

Orientation

Coin alignment

Inscriptions

BALDWIN & CO. | TEN DOLLARS | 1850

Context

: In 1850, George C. Baldwin and Thomas S. Holman formed Baldwin & Co. and purchased the coining operation of F.D. Kohler & Co. Baldwin & Co.'s first issues were $5 and $10 gold coins dated 1850. In 1851, Baldwin & Co. issued $10 and $20 gold coins. Unfortunately, an official assay revealed that Baldwin's coins contained less gold than their stated value, and all confidence in their coins disappeared (this was not an unusual circumstance, as most of the other private assayers suffered the same fate). The 1850 Baldwin & Co. $10 gold piece features a cowboy (or Spanish vaquero) on the obverse. This unusual design deviated from many of the other privately issued gold coins of the period in that it did not attempt to mimic the gold pieces issued by the federal government. This was often done to promote circulation and to prevent someone from questioning the veracity of a particular coin. The cowboy design is very popular with collectors today, and its rarity is an added bonus. PCGS has certified less than a dozen examples of this type, and most of those are Uncirculated, indicating a high degreee of collector influence over the surviving population. Most Mint State examples are low-end (MS62 or lower), but the PCGS Pop Report shows two at the MS64 level. A very pleasing example resides in the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.

Rarity

Rare

Coin type

California Gold (1849-1855)

In circulation

NA

Demonetized

NA

Marketplace listings

0