$10 DESERET CURRENCY PLATE OFFERED

   

Salt Lake City, UT- Deseret Currency Association Copper Printing Plate for Unknown $10 Denomination 18__ "As Made" condition. We are honored to be offering a ground breaking and historic piece of numismatic and Mormon history this evening. The item being offered is the original copper printing plate which was intended to be used to print a $10 denomination as part of the Deseret Currency Association (DCA) issue. The DCA was formed in January 1858 to provide currency for use in commerce in an area that was almost totally without other types of currency. Prior to the issue of the DCA notes, all that was available was a minimal amount of U.S. coins, an equally small issue of Mormon gold coins, and a few reissued earlier Mormon bank notes.

Early DCA notes were simple, hastily printed designs and comprised denominations including $1, $2, $3, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100. Nearly $67,000 of these first series notes were printed by the spring of 1858 in Salt Lake City and Fillmore. According to noted expert Douglas Nyholm, only $1s and $2s along with a single $3 are known from this first series at present.

Mere months after the first series, engraved copper plates, whose note designs were created by Henry Maiben and engraved by David McKenzie, were used to print a second and more elaborate set of four denominations: $1, $2, $3, and $5. Surviving notes of all four denominations are known, although all are very rare. Nyholm reports that by late Summer of 1858, engraved second series notes were being printed at the Deseret News office in Salt Lake City. Engraved notes, with a face value of just over $28,000, were printed. A large percentage of the notes of both series were ultimately redeemed and destroyed. Thus ends the common wisdom on this subject which was turned upside down with the discovery of a printing plate designed to print a $10 note as part of the second series.

The Plate The $10 plate fits well into the parameters of the second series engraved notes. The text promises that the notes are payable in livestock and Brigham Young's signature is engraved and of the same style as on other denominations. The portraits of two prominent men associated with the Church appear on the $10. According to Nyholm, those appearing on the newly discovered $10 plate are Parley Pratt on the left and Willard Richards on the right. Pratt was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint Movement whose writings were widely read and served as an exposition on the Latter Day Saint faith. Pratt died in 1857. Willard Richards was a physician and Second Counselor to Church President Brigham Young from 1847 until his death in 1854. Interestingly, the portrait of Richards does not appear to have been completely engraved when work on this plate ceased. There is a good deal of background information available to help explain why the $10 plate was never completely finished and apparently never used.

Pieces like this are difficult to value. Obviously the plate is unique, but it also has important historical and numismatic significance. We believe that our estimate for this wonderful item is both conservative and reflective of the plate's significance

To read the complete lot description, see:
Deseret Currency Association $10 Copper Printing Plate (https://currency.ha.com/itm/obsoletes-by-state/utah/salt-lake-city-ut-deseret-currency-association-copper-printing-plate-for-unknown-10-denomination-18-as-made-/a/3585-21206.s)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
$10 DESERET CURRENCY PLATE DISCOVERED (https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n06a13.html)

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