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The last coin spent by Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith

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  • ZoinsZoins Posts: 34,117 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @amwldcoin said:
    I talked to David today and let him know they were using his name trying to sell the coin. He told me he indeed saw the coin and told them there was no was way to establish provenance. He also told them the history and facts would not support it either.

    @Zoins said:
    Just ran across this coin which is very interesting. It's a 1844 half eagle that's engraved and says it's the last coin Joseph Smith spent, about an hour before he was killed. Anyone heard of or know about this?

    Apparently Don Kagin, David Hall, and @Regulated have all seen this coin. Given that David Hall said this could be slabbed, I'm surprised it hasn't been, especially when they write:

    I heard about a Billy the Kid picture being sold for $5 at a garage sale and the buyer had it certified as the second known Billy the Kid picture and it sold for $ 5 million.

    1844 $5 HALF EAGLE LAST MONEY SPENT BY PROPHET JOSEPH MORMON GOLD COIN

    Up for sale is this amazing 1844 $5 Gold Half Eagle
    With the phrase on obverse side of the coin to the effect that it was the last money paid out by the prophet Joseph about sixty minutes before he was killed

    An amazing find !

    The Prophet Joseph Smith Jr. was an american religious leader and founder of Mormonism which still continues to present.

    This coin was looked at by Kagin's renowned ultra rare coin experts, it is an authentic 1844 $5 gold half eagle.

    We have this coin for quite a few years and finally decided to take it to the coin show a couple of years ago. We took it to the Expo Coin Show in Long Beach, California a couple of years ago, and showed it to Chris Napolitano Numismatics at his Booth. Chris said he has never seen anything like it and referred us to Dave Hall at the show. Dave is the founder of PCGS and was employed by PCGS at the time.

    Dave looked at it and said he had never seen anything like it. He said PCGS can grade it as far as coin grading goes, but we should go to the Kagin’s booth as they would be the ones to know more about this coin.

    We took the coin to the Kagin's booth at the Expo and Dave McCarthy of Kagin’s looked at it. Mr. McCarthy was very excited to see the coin and took it on consignment immediately.

    He said he had Mormon collectors that could be very excited about this coin.

    Kagin's had the coin for about one year and offered to buy it themselves and also offered to sell it to their collectors a number of times but we did not want to sell.

    Then Kagin's had a Mormon Memorabilia Auction and they were kind enough to offer to put the coin in that auction and told us Kagin’s themselves will also be bidding on the coin, but we did not want to sell it yet.

    According to Mr. McCarthy, Kagin's consulted a historian about the coin. At first the historian was not available and offers came in for us to sell the coin to their collectors. Later, according to Kagin’s, the historian said it is an 1844 coin which is the year that the Prophet Joseph died. According to Mr. McCarthy, the historian said the time frame for the coin to make it from the mint to the location of Prophet Joseph was feasible (which helps with the provenance).

    We think the coin has the possibility of being very valuable and hence did not want to sell it to Kagin’s collectors, even though they offered much more than the coin value.

    Having said that, we make no representation about the coin whatsoever or the writings on it.

    Whoever buys this coin can take it to your own historian and do their own research.

    I heard about a Billy the Kid picture being sold for $5 at a garage sale and the buyer had it certified as the second known Billy the Kid picture and it sold for $ 5 million.

    I also heard about a DaVinci painting that sold for over $400 million last year setting the highest record for any art sale, which was purchased for very little.

    In both cases, the buyer did additional work on their own to authenticate the item and was able to realize tremendous profits as a result.

    Buying this coin is taking a chance. At worst it is a great conversation piece for the right collector who is willing to pay a large premium to own it, and at best it is an invaluable piece of history.

    Here are full width images:

    Good to know. Thanks for reaching out and posting back here.

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