Spurious half and quarter dollars are in circulation, to a considerable extent, in Georgia. -- Miners and Farmers Journal, Charlotte, North Carolina, March 24, 1831This is the finest known example from these dies, richly lustrous and beautifully toned. The obverse is framed in sea blue, around a center blending brilliant antique gray with hints of gold. The reverse shows brighter blue and champagne around a rose and gold tinted silver center. The surfaces are pristine, with just a single microscopic mark behind the eagles head. It is difficult to imagine a coin more lustrous, or toning that better matched the gem quality surfaces.Though coins like this were commonly seen in Philadelphia and other major cities of the Northeast, distribution was imperfect. The Federal Reserve formed generations later in 1913 did not exist to fulfill that function, and most banks were strictly local operations. The hinterlands of the United States, including the South, Midwest, and what was then called the Northwest, often had little reliable circulating coinage. Into this void, counterfeiters emerged, often making base-metal casts of genuine coins for circulation, occasionally engraving their own dies. In another context, as an accommodation to regional miners and merchants, the enterprising Bechtler family of North Carolina began striking their own gold coins in 1831, including the first gold dollars ever struck in the United States. Although they had no official status they were readily accepted in commerce. The Treasury Department was aware of this private coinage, which was struck until 1852, but made no effort to stop it. Eventually, as Americas transportation infrastructure improved, coins of the Philadelphia Mint would be common in the Deep South, and the gold coins of the Bechtler family would circulate far and wide as well. In 1838 the new branch mints at Charlotte, Dahlonega, and New Orleans greatly facilitated the flow of coins into commerce.Supremely lustrous and essentially as-struck, this piece is ranked atop the Rea-Koenings-Haroutunian census of the Browning-4 variety.
