2095

Drexel, Sather & Church Bankers First of Exchange, Gold Rush [166883]

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Paper Start Price:75.00 USD Estimated At:150.00 - 300.00 USD
Drexel, Sather & Church Bankers First of Exchange, Gold Rush [166883]
SOLD
50.00USDto c*********p+ buyer's premium (12.50)
This item SOLD at 2023 Jun 16 @ 10:06UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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Choice and rare. First of Exchange, August 1856, issued to Abraham Jennings for $50...which means it could have been paid for with a $50 slug! Vignette of a building and an allegorical man. Lists partners on the bottom left. Lith. of Robertson & Seibert, NY. 4 x 8.5" They were one of the top exchanges of the California Gold Rush and major shippers of gold to New York. (One of the treasure boxes in our S.S. Central America sale belonged to this company.)

Sather & Church got their start in San Francisco in 1850. Pedar Sather and Edward Church were money brokers in New York. In 1851, they took on a partner, Francis M. Drexel of Philadelphia, founder of the Drexel fortune. Peter (Pedar) Sather and Edward W. Church formed a partnership in New York in the mid-1840s after Church had filed for bankruptcy in March 1842. The partnership was in full swing by 1845, though the pair did not advertise their services. Listed as "brokers" in the various New York City directories, the pair opened a banking office in San Francisco in 1850. By November 1850, the pair had started their regular shipments of gold to New York, where they kept another office open, managed by Peter Sather, who lived across the harbor in Brooklyn. Sather closed the New York office about 1854. In May of 1851 the partners greatly strengthened their firm by adding the partnership of Francis Drexel, a prominent Philadelphia banker who clearly was trying to get his fingers into the California gold business. Together the three partners quickly built a huge and profitable firm. Drexel, Sather & Church became one of the largest gold shippers during the golden years of the California Gold Rush, the 1850s. Drexel had founded Drexel & Co. in Philadelphia in 1837. While he died in 1863, Drexel's firm continued to grow, becoming one of the largest investment banking firms in the world.

When the SSCA sank, Sather & Church lost not only gold but financial documents (exchanges). Their drafts were not honored in New York, but "friends" stepped in to cover existing drafts. However, when the news of the rejected drafts reached California, it caused a panic and a run on the bank on November 3rd, 1857. The bank closed its doors and suspended payments. But they did reopen (with help from friends), and continued operations until it was reorganized as the San Francisco National Bank in 1897.

Date: 1856
Country (if not USA):
State: California
City: San Francisco
Provenance: