Series: Territorials
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#1 Est AU.
George D. Case; Samuel Guthman, by sale for $150; Chicago Coin Co. (Theophile Leon), by sale, October 1909, for $1,250; Virgil Brand; Armin Brand; Jane Brand Allen; "The Virgil Brand Collection, Part II," Bowers and Merena, June 1984, Lot 1537 - $82,500; Ed Milas; Hancock & Harwell. As NGC AU53. "The Duke's Creek Collection"; Donald Kagin; Private sale (along with Duke's Creek $2.50 and $5), circa 2021, for a reported $1.2 million (per Southern Gold Society). Current Guide Book plate coin. |
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#2 Est. AU
DeWitt Smith; Virgil Brand; Chicago Coin Company (Brand and T.E. Leon) in 1909, after Brand bought the finest known example; Henry Chapman, by sale, October 24, 1910 - $3,250; Waldo Newcomer; B. Max Mehl; Charles M. Williams; Numismatic Gallery Fixed Price List, 1951, Lot 3 - sold for $8,750; Lammot du Pont; Willis du Pont; stolen in 1967; present status unknown. This example served as the plate coin in early editions of R.S. Yeoman’s A Guide Book of United States Coins (the "Red Book"). After Virgil Brand acquired a finer specimen in 1909, his Chicago Coin Company sold this piece to the prominent Philadelphia dealer Henry Chapman. Chapman subsequently offered the coin to H.O. Granberg; however, Granberg passed on the offer, later settling for an "XF Details" example for which he paid $2,000. Following its acquisition by the du Pont family, the coin’s whereabouts have remained unknown for nearly 60 years, ever since it was stolen in the infamous 1967 heist. |
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#3 Est. XF Details
S.H. Chapman, acquired from Georgia source, 1910; H.O. Granberg, by sale for $2,000; William Woodin; Waldo Newcomer; B. Max Mehl, by sale, 1917; Mehl to Fred Joy, by sale; "The Fred Joy Collection," sold, en bloc, to Mehl, 1925; Mehl to "Colonel" E.H.R. Green; Green Estate; B.G. Johnson and Eric P. Newman, by sale, 1944; B.G. Johnson; Johnson Estate; Frank Smith, by sale; Smith & Son; Charles E. Green, by sale; Josiah K. Lilly, via Stack's; National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution. The Granberg-Lilly coin passed through several prominent collections before the Lilly collection was donated to the National Numismatic Collection on June 13, 1968. The coin was one of many from the Lilly Collection exhibited on November 13, 2019 at a special reception in the curator's offices for Friends of the National Numismatic Collection. |
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#4 Est. Fine Details
C.E. Gilhousen; Gilhousen to coin dealer J. Milnor Brown, by sale; Brown Estate in 1934; Jacob Shapiro (a.k.a. J.F. Bell); "The Memorable Collection," Numismatic Gallery, March 1948, Lot 940; James P. Randall; Ambassador and Mrs. R. Henry Norweb; "The Norweb Collection, Part III," Bowers and Merena, November 1988, Lot 3349; Donald Kagin; unknown intermediaries. As NGC VF Details #6057627-001. "The Long Island Collection," Heritage Auctions, August 18, 2021, Lot 3510 - $120,000. Repaired. Polished. Gilhousen exhibited the coin at a March 7, 1933 meeting of the California Coin Club. A report about the exhibit appeared in the April 1933 Numismatist. Gilhousen sold the coin following the meeting, and dealer J. Milnor Brown. The coin was also advertised in the April 1949 Numismatist. |
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#5 PCGS VG08
Abner Kreisberg; "The 10th Anniversary Auction," Kreisberg-Schulman, April 1967, Lot 601; Irving Moskowitz; "The Moskowitz Collection," Quality Sales, February 1977, Lot 1484 - $41,000; The Clifford-Kagin Collection; unknown intermediaries; Robert Bass. As PCGS VG08 #09498121. Kreisberg advertised this coin in the October 1966 Numismatist. Don Kagin (as Marin Numismatics) advertised the coin in the October 1992 Numismatist and again (as Kagin's) in the January 1999 Numismatist. |
Born in Greene County, Georgia, Templeton Reid was the son of Alexander Reid, a Revolutionary War patriot who settled in the area with his four brothers between 1786 and 1792. The elder Reid was a prominent local figure, operating a ferry, a gristmill, and a slaveholding plantation.
Reid initially established himself as a machinist, manufacturing cotton gins in Putnam County. By 1813, he moved to the Georgia capital of Milledgeville, where he rebranded as a watchmaker and repairman under the firm T & E Reid (partnering with his brother, Elisha). His technical expertise extended to civil engineering; from 1814 to 1817, he participated in a public works project aimed at making the Oconee River navigable. Demonstrating his broad mechanical aptitude (and his entrepreneurial spirt), Reid also operated as a jeweler and gunsmith between 1811 to 1828.
Reid’s most enduring legacy began in the early summer of 1830 in Lumpkin County. Exploiting the local gold rush, he struck the first private-issue gold coins denominated in United States dollars. He issued denominations of $2.50 (#10320), $5.00 (#10323), and $10.00 (#10326), all of which are legendary rarities today.
Reid's 1830 coinage shares a stark epigraphic aesthetic. While the three denominations feature distinct obverse layouts, they are unified by several key design elements: a prominent annular inner border, the peripheral inscription "GEORGIA GOLD" (punctuated with periods on the $2.50 and $5 pieces), and the date "1830." On the $5 coin, the denomination is centered on both the obverse and reverse. The $2.50 coin is characterized by elongated denticles that extend more than halfway from the rim to the inner circle. The reverse of each denomination bears Reid's identying mark, stylized on the $2.50 as "T. REID ASSAYER."
Reid’s minting career was short-lived. Following the publication of a scathing (and likely exaggerated) letter in the Georgia Courier claiming his coins were underweight, Reid lacked the social capital to defend himself, and a wave of public distrust effectively shuttered his mint. Beyond the bullion value, critics questioned whether Reid’s operation violated the United States Mint’s constitutional monopoly on coinage. By 1832, the controversy forced Reid to abandon minting; he returned to Putnam County to reside with Elisha and resumed his trade making cotton gins.
In 1839, Reid sought a fresh start in the Republic of Texas. He applied for a patent for an improved cotton gin brush—the sixth patent ever granted by the nascent republic—and partnered with John Cornick & Co. of Houston to manufacture and sell the design.
Despite his ingenuity, Reid’s later years were defined by financial instability. Upon returning to Georgia, he was beset by legal troubles. In 1839, he was arrested and forced to post bail over an unpaid promissory note. Throughout the early 1840s, both Reid brothers faced a battery of lawsuits from creditors, including R.H.L. Buchannon and John B. Peabody. These legal battles culminated in 1847, when Reid's property was liquidated to satisfy his debts.
Reid continued to market his cotton gins until his death on August 5, 1851, following an accidental fall. His body was found on the banks of the Chattahoochee River. Earlier, in 1849, he had attempted to revive his private mint as news of the California Gold Rush swept the nation. This second venture was short-lived; only two specimens from this effort are known to exist. Both dated 1849 and sent to the Philadelphia Mint for assay in 1850.
The first, a $10 gold piece, retains Reid's classic 1830 aesthetic but incorporates idiosyncratic design changes: a beaded border replaces his signature flat annular ring, a six-pointed star precedes Reid's name on the obverse, and two similar stars flank the words "CALIFORNIA GOLD." Notably, these stars are not aligned on a level plane, reflecting the hand-punched nature of die. Furthermore, the denomination is curiously rendered as "TEN DOLLAR" rather than "TEN DOLLARS."
The second, a $25 gold piece, is even more eccentric. It features a six-pointed star preceding Reid's name and an unusual obverse denomination rendered with a double-stroke dollar sign as "$XXV." The reverse centers a rosette between the words "TWENTY-FIVE" and "DOLLARS."
Critically, the $25 specimen was found to be approximately 2% underweight. Following their examination, both coins were transferred to the Mint Cabinet. In 1858, the $25 piece was stolen from a display in the Philadelphia Mint lobby and never recovered; no other examples of Reid’s 1849 coinage have ever resurfaced. Today, the $10 piece resides in the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution, alongside a copper electrotype of the missing $25 rarity.
Templeton Reid's obituary appeared in the Columbus Times the day of his passing. Today, the man who struck Georgia's first gold coins and pioneered private coinage in the United States lies in an unmarked grave at Linwood Cemetery.
Struck in unknown quantities, only five confirmed examples of the 1830 Templeton Reid $10 gold coin were known to have survived into the 1960s. The finest of these is the celebrated specimen from the Virgil Brand and Duke’s Creek collections. According to the Southern Gold Society, this coin reportedly sold as part of a "Duke’s Creek trio" for $1.2 million. Its only potential rival in terms of condition has remained unaccounted for since the 1967 robbery of the du Pont estate.
As for the three remaining pieces: one "XF Details" example was donated to the National Numismatic Collection by the Josiah K. Lilly estate in 1968. Another, described as repaired and polished, realized $120,000 at a Heritage auction in 2021. The final specimen—and the only example currently certified by PCGS—is graded VG08 and has been handled on several occasions by Kagin’s.
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