Heritage World Coin Auctions
FUN Signature US Coin Sale 1251 4-6 & 8-9 Jan 2017
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Commemorative Gold
1915-S $50 Panama-Pacific 50 Dollar Round -- Cleaning -- PCGS Genuine. Unc Details. The most lasting mementos of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, held in San Francisco in 1915, are the gold and silver commemorative coins issued in mid-1915 as souvenirs for visitors of the exposition. Among these, the fifty dollar gold pieces are the rarest and most highly prized today. A medal press was shipped to San Francisco for the purpose of striking these coins, which were too large for a regular silver dollar press to accommodate. Congress authorized a coinage of 1,500 examples each of the round and octagonal varieties, although with a fifty dollar face value and hundred dollar purchase price -- no small amount of cash in 1915 -- most were later melted as unsold. The total number of pieces ever dispersed into collectors' hands were 645 octagonal coins and 483 round.
Collectors seldom have a chance to acquire a Pan-Pac fifty -- particularly the scarcer round variant -- in a grade that can in any way be termed affordable. This example comes about as close as possible. The coin is unworn, although faint hairlines on each side attest to an old cleaning that precludes a numeric designation from PCGS. The strike is sharp, and the surfaces are visually pleasing to the unaided eye.
1915-S $50 Panama-Pacific 50 Dollar Round -- Cleaning -- PCGS Genuine. Unc Details. The most lasting mementos of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, held in San Francisco in 1915, are the gold and silver commemorative coins issued in mid-1915 as souvenirs for visitors of the exposition. Among these, the fifty dollar gold pieces are the rarest and most highly prized today. A medal press was shipped to San Francisco for the purpose of striking these coins, which were too large for a regular silver dollar press to accommodate. Congress authorized a coinage of 1,500 examples each of the round and octagonal varieties, although with a fifty dollar face value and hundred dollar purchase price -- no small amount of cash in 1915 -- most were later melted as unsold. The total number of pieces ever dispersed into collectors' hands were 645 octagonal coins and 483 round.
Collectors seldom have a chance to acquire a Pan-Pac fifty -- particularly the scarcer round variant -- in a grade that can in any way be termed affordable. This example comes about as close as possible. The coin is unworn, although faint hairlines on each side attest to an old cleaning that precludes a numeric designation from PCGS. The strike is sharp, and the surfaces are visually pleasing to the unaided eye.