(1831-34) $5 C. Bechtler, Assayer, with 150.G. MS63 认证号56920540, PCGS号10118

The finest of somewhere between 12 and 15 examples in private hands. First sold publicly as a part of the Bushnell sale in 1882, the coin passed into legendary 19th century dealer Edouard Frossard’s collection, and was auctioned again in 1884. Eventually it passed to ANS President Andrew Zabriskie (Chapman, 1909), where it was purchased by Colonel James W. Ellsworth, and from there it passed to the legendary collection of John Work Garrett. In 1979, it was purchased by Don and Art Kagin, and resided in the Kagin Collection before passing into the collection of Christopher Allen. An absolutely incredible coin, and arguably the greatest Bechtler anywhere.

Ron Guth

In the Bechtler gold series, Kagin 15 denotes a $5 variety issued by Christopher Bechtler of Rutherford County, North Carolina.  This variety shows the denomination of $5 on one side, along with the fineness of the gold (20 Carats) and the weight (150 grains).  In 1981, reasearcher and author, Don Kagin, gave this variety a rating of Rarity 7 (7-9 examples).  Since then, additional examples have appeared and we now have auction citations for eleven different examples and images of nine of them.  

Most examples are fairly well-preserved.  At least six AU's are known, along with two Mint State examples (the best of which is PCGS MS62 formerly of the Stephen Schechter Collection).  This simple, text message of this variety is usually well struck with the notable exception of a lone PCGS AU55 that was probably struck with the dies out of parallel such that the word CAROLINA is weak as are some of the legends on the exact opposite side.