Charles Jonath (VCD Auctions)
So let me ask you this, today in 2023, how would one approach collecting Pioneer gold?
Don Kagin (Kagins)
Well, I think it is very important that you work with somebody who is knowledgeable in the field and there are a few people here in the country that are qualified because this is one series in particular that as my father use to say “you can't park your brain just because a grading service has designated a coin a certain grade” so many of the coins today in holders are not original surfaces, they have been cleaned or enhanced in some way, and this is such a specialized field that it's hard for even graders who are professionals to know every series and this is one that there's so few examples that it is difficult to really grade them correctly and unfortunately, there is a lot of coins in holders today that we would not recommend to our clients for instance. But given that there is a method to the madness I've put together what I call an 11-piece typeset of pioneer gold that pretty well covers the three Gold Rush areas where coins were made, the Southern Appalachia Gold Rush of 1830, basically where we have the Templeton Reed and Bechtler coinage then 20 years later in California which was huge and then you have people in Oregon as well and the Mormons in Utah that issued coins and then ten years later you have the Colorado Gold Rush, so you want a Bechtler coin you want to put together a coin from Oregon if you can afford it and then Mormons from Utah and California that's one of each area that produced coins and Clark Gruber in Colorado that produce the coins and then within there, especially within California there is a number of coins you can collect that represents pretty much uh the California experience, a fifty-dollar gold piece from the us assay office you want one of those, you want a Norris Greg Norris the first privately gold coin struck in California, a Moffat & Co gold coin, a Kellogg & Company gold coin, I mean coins that are accessible and you could put 11 piece typeset together for not that much money, you know you got a $50 gold piece that's maybe a five-figure coin in a lower grade but still it's something that's challenging but doable, you won't get every Merchant that issued coins.
Charles Jonath (VCD Auctions)
The slug is still an attractive coin in lower grade
Don Kagin (Kagins)
Yeah, they all are very interesting coins. It is not just finding another date of the same design, right, I mean to me you know there is a challenge there but artistically and historically, you are not dealing with much difference between one Morgan dollar and another Morgan Dollar right,
Charles Jonath (VCD Auctions)
Yeah exactly
Don Kagin (Kagins)
But then when you getting to Pioneer gold, it’s very diverse and they all are different right, so that is the challenge and the fun of it.
Charles Jonath (VCD Auctions)
Well, I don't know, the grading I think is a big aspect to it too because I still feel like there's room for improvement on the whole grading process of pioneer gold. There still is the question of who gets it right and when and how that happens in these grading rooms. There is no real clear-cut criteria from the major grading companies on what they expect for these coins it seems, right?
Don Kagin (Kagins)
Well, we hope that improves over time. We of course are consultants if they want to use us but again it is consistency that is hard. Its hard to become consistent on something when you are not seeing that many examples, that is the whole thing too, this is very much the issue.
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