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Hentsch & Berton Check (SS Central America Ingots)

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Mining Start Price:300.00 USD Estimated At:600.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Hentsch & Berton Check (SS Central America Ingots)
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Hentsch & Berton were the successors in 1863 to Henry Hentsch's banking and assay business in San Francisco. Hentsch was born in Geneva in approximately 1830 and arrived in California in 1849. After working in Grass Valley and Sonoma he opened an assay office and bank in San Francisco around 1856. Hentsch is perhaps best known to numismatists by the rare Hentsch gold ingots found at the wreck site of the S.S. Central America, which sank in 1857. Ephemera from Hentsch is even rarer than the ingots. The most common collectibles are Hentsch & Berton checks, though there are probably less than ten known.

Dateline Mok. Hill, July 27, 1869. Pay to Dahrman & Comp. $270. Signed by A.H. Hoerchner. 3.25" x 7" Blue paper. Two cent hand-cancelled revenue stamp. Printed by Edward Bosqui & Co., SF.

According to John Doble's journals, A.H. Hoerchner was a German doctor who came to California during the Gold Rush, losing a child on the voyage. He set up a partnership with a D.L. Angier, setting up a shop in Stockton and then later a hotel. "When the placers ran out," Hoerchner set-up a sanitarium for "worn-out miners" at Pleasant Springs. He also served as its first postmaster. Date: Location: San Francisco, California HWAC# 50918