McGinty, Brian

Description

McGinty, Brian. Haraszthy at the Mint. Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1975. Red cloth over decorative boards; 60, [2] pp. 10 illustrations. Edition limited to 300 copies. Number 10 in the “Famous California Trials” series.

Very good with faint markings to covers.

Who Guards the Guardians of your Gold?

This fine press book with 10 lovely illustrations of the San Francisco Mint, gold refining and assaying tells the story of Agoston Haraszthy (1812-1869). When a branch of the United States Mint opened in San Francisco in April 1854, Haraszthy became the first U.S. assayer. In August 1855, he became melter and refiner at the Mint. A grand jury investigation of alleged defalcations of gold from the Mint led in September 1857, to a federal indictment charging Haraszthy with the embezzlement of $151,550 in gold. A long investigation led to the dismissal of the criminal charges. A civil trial then followed, which fully exonerated Haraszthy in February 1861.

At the time of cataloguing, only one other copy for sale for $1,177. So clearly, we missed something big.