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Bank of California 3rd of Exchange Signed by W.C. Ralston, 1873

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Exonumia Start Price:200.00 USD Estimated At:400.00 - 700.00 USD
Bank of California 3rd of Exchange Signed by W.C. Ralston, 1873
SOLD
225.00USDto B*********g+ buyer's premium (56.25)
This item SOLD at 2018 Mar 16 @ 18:30UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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Premier and very rare Western autograph piece. No. 11196. Dateline San Francisco, March 12th, 1873. Sixty days after sight, pay Cal. Santos 409 pounds sterling. Signed by W.C. Ralston. To be drawn on the Oriental Bank Corporation, London. Allegorical vignette. Lith. Britton & Rey, SF. Folds, some toning. 4.25 x 8.5" William Chapman Ralston was the founder of the Bank of California. With agent William Sharon, the two took control of the Comstock Lode mines in the 1860s. They created a branch of the Bank of California in Virginia City in 1864 with Sharon as agent. They created a monopoly by offering low interest loans to mines and mills with the properties as collateral. Since this was a period of declining mining activity, most couldn't repay their loans and the Bank took over the mines and mills. By 1867, they owned seven mills, which they organized as the Union Mill and Mining Co. By 1869, they had seventeen mills. Their dominion over the Comstock was ended by the Bonanza Firm (Mackay, Fair, Flood, O'Brien) and their rival bank, the Nevada Bank of San Francisco. Ralston, along with D.O. Mills, founded the Virginia & Truckee Railroad. Ralston also built the luxurious Palace Hotel in San Francisco, site of the Sharon Comstock Lode reunion dinner that had silver ingot invitations that our company has sold in the past. The cost of construction, paired with some other investments, and the financial Panic of 1873, caused the collapse of the Bank of California and Ralston's ruin. He went swimming in San Francisco Bay and was found dead, possibly from a stroke. (Potter Collection) Date: Location: San Francisco, California HWAC# 59184