The first gold coin ever minted in the United States is set for a huge private sale. There are many people who love to collect things that are old, rare, or valuable. For a select few, combining the three is ideal. That’s why the first gold coin ever made in the US is being offered for private sale with an asking price of $15 million, according to a recent report by Bloomberg News. The coin is the Brasher Doubloon, and it was struck in 1787. It was created the same year the Constitution was written, and five years before there was such an entity as a federal mint. The coin was made by a metalsmith named Ephraim Brasher, George Washington’s next-door neighbor in New York. Brasher privately minted a small number of coins, and he marked his initials on the breast of the eagle of the first of them. Given the timing and proximity, it’s very likely Washington himself handled the coin at some point. The coin’s actual purpose is a bit of a mystery. No one knows if it was made as a prototype or souvenir, or if it was made to be circulated. Brasher made seven of the doubloons, but his initials are on the eagles’ wings on the other six coins.
Thirteen stars are arranged over the eagle’s head, no doubt to refer to the thirteen colonies, and the phrase ‘E pluribus unum’ runs around the periphery, separated by stars. The date it was struck, 1787, is below that. The other shows a scene of the sun rising over a mountain. Despite the fact that Brasher stamped his initials on the eagles, most scholars seem to agree that the ‘face’ is actually the side showing the landscape. ‘Brasher’ is inscribed below the landscape, and the legends ‘Nova Eborac,’ ‘Excelsior,’ and ‘Columbia’ can be seen around the periphery of the coin, separated by quatrefoils.
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