BG- 519 1853 California Gold Rush Circulating Fractional Gold $1, Liberty Octagonal NGC AU Details - DERI initials

This is a pretty good value for a gold dollar that is purported to have circulated in California during the heady days of the Gold Rush-!

1853 Gold $1 Liberty Head Octagonal, initials DERI on reverse. Low Rarity-4.

• Period One - circulating issues between 1852 and 1856.
• Redbook Type: Octagonal Dollar - Liberty Head / Value & Date in Beaded Circle.
• Made by M. Deriberpe, 1853-1854.

Obverse: 8 stars; 1st star below and almost touching point of bust; 4th star directly to left of point of coronet (differs from BG-518); 6th star touches upper bun of hair; 8th star nearly touches bottom curl on neck. All stars have at least one point broken.

Reverse:  ‘* CALIFORNIA GOLD *’ and ‘DERI’ outside beaded circle; FO close together. 1 DOLLAR 1853 within circle. Top of 1 points to N in CALIFORNIA. DOLLAR is parallel between AL of CALIFORNIA and O in GOLD. Date is even except 5 is slightly lower than 18_3.

Among the first of the California dollars. Crudely made and hand struck.

EML 3; Burnie 4; Lee 2C; D 410B.

• Die State-1: perfect reverse.
• Die State-2: rev. break slanting up to right from left rim through first Q, beads and DO to final A with a branch toward beads opposite O in GOLD.

Historical Note: Two examples were recovered by divers from the S.S. Winfield Scott shipwreck. The S.S. Winfield Scott was operated by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to carry passengers and cargo between San Francisco and Panama.  On December 1, 1853, she left San Francisco bound for Panama with about 400 passengers and $884,861.50 in treasure.  Two days out she was caught in a storm and ran aground 30 miles west of Santa Barbara.  The passengers and most of the treasure were rescued.  What remained were mainly items of small value abandoned by the passengers in their haste to evacuate the sinking ship.