1852 United States Assay Office of Gold $10. K-12a(2). Rarity-5. 884 THOUS. AU-53 (PCGS).Richly toned in medium greenish gold hues that help to highlight the excellent overall strike with strong definition throughout including on the delicate lacework design on the reverse. Choice surfaces throughout and remarkably devoid of the serious dings and scrapes that afflict most of these heavily used territorial gold coins make this Choice surfaces are overall smooth, boldly defined and possessed of satiny olive-orange luster.Earlier private minting operations were effectively shut down earlier in 1851 due to assays by Jacob R. Eckfeldt and William E. Du Bois revealing that many of these coins were worth less than their stated denominations, as well as damning exposés by James King. Moffat & Co.s coins were largely unaffected and kept producing desperately needed lower denomination coins. John Little Moffat retired in February of 1852 from the firm he founded, Moffat & Co., which promptly dissolved. Moffat & Co.s original contract to issue gold ingots and coins on behalf of the federal government was transferred to its successor, the United States Assay Office of Gold, headed by Joseph R. Curtis, Philo H. Perry and Samuel H. Ward. As part of the original terms of the government contract, the Assay Office of Gold was prohibited from issuing any ingot in denominations under $50, therefore not providing any relief from the chronic coin shortages that plagued the gold bearing regions. Repeated petitions and went unheeded until finally the Treasury relented and permitted the USAOG to produce coins in $10 and $20 denominations. Curtis, Perry, & Ward quickly introduced These pieces found an immediately receptive audience and they circulated widely until the San Francisco Mint could finally fill the need. There are two principal varieties of the 1852 $10 coin based on the placement of the O in OFFICE in relation to UNITED. Here, the O is directly under the N and the dentils are weak on the reverse, which is the most frequently encountered variety of the K-12a reverse. Available in lower to middle level circulated grade levels, the K-12a(2) is quite scarce in problem-free AU or Mint State. An all-around appealing coin with much to offer even the most discriminating of numismatist.From the Dr. Andrew Mitchell Collection.
