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San Francisco 1860
World67
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The San Francisco no motto seated quarters 1855-1865 have become the favorite part of my seated quarter set. I've been doing some reading about early San Francisco and ran across this Isidore-Laurent Deroy lithograph. Deroy was a well known (at the time) French lithographer of city views and did several American cities, including this view of San Francisco in 1860.
I'm been doing some preliminary research to try and determine how accurate it is, or if it's just an approximation of the actual buildings. I think it's largely an approximation. I'm pretty sure the main road is supposed to be Market St.
I ordered the gilcee canvas print below which I'll get blocked and framed for my office. Post your 1860 San Francisco coins!
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It might be a highly stylized reproduction. I'm assuming the view is looking north towards Angel Island from Twin Peaks but the angle doesn't look accurate.
Tim
Look like someone stole the Golden Gate bridge! LOL
The view is looking northeast. That should be Yerba Buena Island in the middle.
The map is looking northeast toward the bay. Someone stole the bay bridge.
OK, that makes much more sense:
Tim
Progression:
Tim
Here's the BAY bridge.
The print may of been flipped at some point.
1860-S $10 This is my rarest coin.
Awesome 1860-s quarter!
So nice for the grade!
Wow, incredible coin!
Yes, it is somewhat stylized, and it shows Yerba Buena Island (aka Goat Island).
However the main street shown is Sacramento Street, not Market Street.
As @pointfivezero's photos show, Market St. heads to the left side of Goat Island, not the right side.
I found an 1860 photo, and the drawings are quite similar to it.
One of the buildings it shows is the "Montgomery Block", which I have labelled A in the photos and map below.
This building was one of the few still standing after the 1906 quake and fire.
It had 4 stories and 19 windows on the top floor.
These are accurately shown in the photo and the Payot drawing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Block
1. 1860 photo
https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.ca0675.photos (the link includes later photos of the Montgomery Block)
2. Payot / Gosselin drawing 1860 - somewhat accurate
https://www.geographicus.com/P/AntiqueMap/sanfrancisco-gosselin-1860
3. Deroy drawing (1870) - less accurate
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:San_francisco_1860.jpg
Some of the items which have been exaggerated are the height of Telegraph Hill (on the far left),
the size of Goat Island, the size of the Oakland Hills behind Goat Island, and the height of the tower on building B.
It also does not show 19 windows on the Montgomery Block.
4. google maps 2024
I added an M at the location of the original SF Mint, 608 Commercial St.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/628+Montgomery+St,+San+Francisco,+CA+94111/@37.7932344,-122.4013417,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x8085808ac41570c7:0x56ef60aaf2f46db8!8m2!3d37.7951228!4d-122.4030798?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDgyNy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw==
Nice analysis, @yosclimber. I was definitely thrown off by the size of YB island in the OP's drawing. Based on the size, I thought it could only be Angel Island when I looked at a current aerial view of the Bay Area. And the Oakland Hills look like the Sierra's in the Deroy version. I thought it could be an exaggerated version of Mt Diablo at first except it only shows a single peak.
Appreciate the research.
Tim
@yosclimber Thanks for the clarification, awesome info!
Ultimately I was hoping to identify the original San Francisco mint in the picture. It would be on Montgomery St, between Clay and Commercial St.
It should be somewhere in this area in the photo.
It looks like it might be this building on the picture (it doesn't really look like anything in the photo though).
From what I can tell so far, no photographs of the original mint exist. I ran across this, which is supposed to be the original mint, but I have no idea if that's true.
It looks like it would be one of these buildings on the Payot picture.
I don't own an 1860 S mint coin, but since you referenced a range of favorite years in your post, I hope you'll don't mind if I throw this in to participate:
"She comes out of the sun in a silk dress,
running like a water color in the rain...."
Yes.
The wikipedia entry says it was at 608 Commercial St.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Mint
If that is true, it was quite close to the Montgomery Block,
and it would be down behind the building with the signs saying
"FORD'S", "DAGUERRAN GALLERY" and "CLOTHING WARE HOUSE".
Commercial Street is on the left side of that building in this photo.
I added a small M to the google map capture for that address.
@yosclimber
I think it would actually be right above where you placed the M, between Clay and Commercial St.
The SF Historical Society is on the current site at 608 Commercial St.
My understanding is that the original SF mint was torn down in 1877 and replaced with a new assay office building, which was destroyed in the 1906 fire, except for the front facade, which is preserved as the facade for the SF Historical Society located at 608 Commercial St. today.
Surviving facade
The first San Francisco Mint was open from 1854 to 1874 at 608 Commercial Street near Montgomery Street. The building was previously used by Moffat & Company, a private mint and assay office.
The building became a Subtreasury (government office for holding bullion), then was a branch of the Bank of Canton, and now is the Pacific Heritage Museum with exhibits devoted to Asian art.
There is a small mint museum in the basement of the building with some replica ore carts and bags.
Historic plaque
Mint building
Silver dollars from the subtreasury days
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
Thank you Manifest Destiny!
i did a presentation on the first San Francisco Mint- 1854. My Power point slides are attached. Clicking the link will download the slides. A thank you to Big Tree for helping me find the best only true source for this presentation!
I did another presentation on the Granite Lady San Francisco mint - 1874. Clicking the link will download the slides.
@semikeycollector Awesome presentations! Here's a screenshot of one of the slides.
Very nice.
One suggestion is to add the 1854-S $5 to the bar chart on slide 4.
@semikeycollector: awesome read! Thanks for making these available.
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Hi Yosclimber,
Yes this was an accidental omission. Good point! There is a later slide that discusses the 1854 $5.
Thank you!
Thank you CopperIndian! It was a lot of fun researching this topic! Glad you enjoyed!
Thank you Manifest Destiny! I can always use a helpful advertisement!!!
You are correct - I just checked it using google street view.
The even numbered addresses are on the north side of Commercial St.
I will correct the location of the M on my map.
This also implies that the mint is almost visible in the 1860 photo.
It is just down, left (north) and slightly up (east) of the building with the signs "CLOTHING WARE HOUSE", etc.
My red dashed rectangle is a very rough guess.
It might be further east.
Or it might be partly visible in the photo.
I was trying to place it near the corner of Commercial and Montgomery.
I think it's this low profile building with the smoke stacks.
It turns out the photo is actually part of a 7 image panorama shot in 1855 by George Robinson Fardon.
Above is an improved version of the area near the 1854 SF Mint.
https://www.phillips.com/article/104418614/san-francisco-time-warp
In the text they err on the location of Clay Street.
Ford's Daguerrean Gallery was on Kearny x Commercial Street, not Kearny x Clay Street.
This is because we know the Montgomery Block (middle of left side of photo) was on Montgomery x Clay Street.
The full Fardon panorama is quite similar to the Payot and Deroy lithographs.
1855 Fardon
1860 Payot
1870 Deroy
More great info! I agree with the Daguerran Gallery being on Kearny x Commercial Street. That would place the mint at this spot in the photo.