The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26
RARE GOLD COINS ADVANCE IN VALUE High Prices Are Paid for Rare
 Pieces FORMERLY NEGLECTED Privately UntrIed Pieces, Against Which the Public Was Formerly Warned, Now Most Desired By
 Larger Collections.
FORMERLY NEGLECTED
From the Boston Herald.

From the Boston Herald
 The advance in value of rare Amer lean gold coins is strikingiy manifested by a comparison of the prices paid recent ly and in the period between 1S@ and 1895. For some reason collectors former ly took little interest in coins struck in gold. It was not that the investment required was too great, for they paid high prices for the early rare American cents, but they simply did not seem to fancy gold coins. and what are now considered the greatest coin rarities went for the proverbial song.
 One of the best Illustrations of the ad- vance is shown by the price brought this year by the two unique $50 gold pieces for which ". H. Wodin of New York paid the worlds record price of $10.000 each. Vet eran dealers in coins declare that 1t is by no means an exaggeration to say that in 1877. the year of the issue of the $50 pieces mentioned, very few collectors would have bought them at their bullion value in gold for s10o. This statement is borne out by the records of coin sales in the latter part of the roc. Some of the rarest of the gold pattern coins, in which series the $50 pieces are classed. sold then for little more than face value. Now the same coins would bring 100 times as much.
 One of the rarest of American gold coins is the $5 gold piece made by tho private minting firm of Dubosq & Co. at San Francisco in 1850. In 1884 a speci- men of this coin offered at auction brought only ..6.40. That was the last and the only time the Dubosq $5 piece has been offered for sale. As matter of fact, the specimen sold Is the only one of which there Is any record Even the mint cabinet at Philadelphia does not contain one of those pieces. It Is not known where this solitary speci- men Is now. Its value can only be guessed at.
 $62oo For New York DoubIoon. A specimen of the New York gold doubloon made by Ephraim Brasher fn 17s7, which holds record of $62oo, brought only $450 in 1889, when the ! collection of R. c. Davis was disposed of at auction, while several years pre- viously, at the Bushnell sale in 1882, an equally well preserved specimen sold for $505.
 The 1922 half eagle was known to
 be a scarce coin many years ago, and yet New York coin dealer in the
 soc purchased from another dealer Of this city a hal feagle of 1922 for $6. At that time it was stated that the
 coin was really worth $500. That figure was considered ~extravagant then, and yet & couple of years ago this identical coin sold for $2166. An 1915 $5 gold piece brought no more l than $52 at well attended auction in
 1883. A year ago or so a specimen of this
 coin sold for 5000.
 All the s pieces issued from 1919 to 1882
 are now scarce, and their values range 1 from s20o to $500, and yet not so very long
 ago a collector thought he was paying all l one of the coins was worth when he gave l twice it's face value.
 Noteworth are the coins sctruck by the
 Bechtlers in North Carolina from 1881 Up
 to the some time in the DOS A veteran l coin dealer of Philadelphia sighs when he thinks of the great premiums now paid for the g 50 and S5 pieces of this char
 acter and considers that some years
 ago he sent lot after lot of them to the l mint to be melted, receiving only bull 1 lion value. Collectors then did not feel
 interest enough in the coins to pay face
 value for theni-which is contract to the
 record prices of $25O and $7S5 that have l lately been paid for s2.50 and s5 pieces of
 the North Carolina private mint. Rise In Mormon Gold Coin. The rise in value of the Norman gold l coins has been extraordinary also when
 one considers that the products of the l Utah mint fell into such disfavor at the 1 time of their issue, 1S49 and 1850, that l the coins passed only for bullion value. l Asay has shown the $20 pieces to be
 worth not more than SIPS and the mer-
 chants of California after time refused
 them altogether. Now one of those de- 1 spised coins of the denomination of $20 I would bring at least $500 and a $10 piece I wonld command much larger pre- l mium.
 1 California private gold coins have made a jump in value. The rare $1O piece issued in 1S49 by the Cincinnati Mining and Trading company in Califor- nio for a specimen of which as much as
 5000 has been paid in recent years, did
 not excite much interest when speci- men was sold at an auction in 1887, only $51 being paid for 1t.
 If an 1849 S10 gold piece bearing the stamp of the Pacific company, another California private minting firm, were to
 be offered for sale today, 1t would fetch
 as much as the Cincinnati piece, and yet when offered at auction in 1884 at the
 Levick sale one of these pieces with a
 radiated Liberty cap brought only s22. Even the much-sought golden ingots
 of Mofrat & Co.,, the first pieces of gold
 to pass current as money in California, were not regarded with more than
 casual interest bp old-tme collectors. Specimens of these tiny bricks of gold brought as little as $26 in former years,
 and yet last year a similar gold brick of the denomination of s18 sold for $s4O. One of the greatest jumps in value was
 shown by s gold piece bearing the
 stamp of J. J. Conway & Co. This 1 coin was made in 1861 by firm of jew
 elers and bankers in one of the Colorado
 mining camps. When 1t first made its
 appearance a newspaper of Denver
 warned its readers that the coin did not l contain it's Gtamped vaIue i,, cold orA
 advised the Pike's peak pioneers to be-
 ware of 1t. Subsequently assay demon-
 strated that the coins intrinsic value
 was s5.01, and the only specimen ever
 offered for sale brought sS2O0 last year.
 Outside of one in the Philadelphia mint