Finest Known of very rare California Fractional Gold variety!

Here’s a rare piece for the specialist in California Fractional Gold. Coin dealer and gold specialist Robert B. Lecce is acknowledged to have discovered this very rare BG-835A variety in 1991. Therefore, this variety is not found in any of the Lee references, or the first edition of the Breen-Gillio book. The obverse of BG-835 was muled with the reverse of BG-834 to give us the BG-835A. PCGS estimates there are only 7 pieces in existence, while the second edition of Breen-Gillio lists a scant 5 survivors.

NGC has graded one in MS62 with none finer. There is one graded MS62PL by NGC, while PCGS has graded 3 as MS62 with none finer. Therefore, this offering from AUCM is tied for finest known. For more specific details about this coin, please see below.

The California Theater in San Francisco, circa 1870. Photo: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Note the distinctive 'G' mintmark for Gray on the obverse. Gray and Company had a shop located at 616 Merchant Street in San Francisco. It was either the year 1858 or 1859 that Gray purchased the business of another San Francisco jeweler and fractional gold manufacturer, Antoine Louis Nouzillet, including all of his dies, hubs, and punches. The year after this variety was struck, in 1871, Gray sold his business interests to the Levinson Brothers/California Jewelry Company.