The 1787 Brasher Doubloon with Ephraim Brasher’s “EB” hallmark on the eagle’s breast stands among the most important coins in American numismatics. Auction catalogers have called it “the single most important coin in American numismatics,” and the description still fits. Heritage used that phrase in its 2005 offering of the coin, while PCGS identifies it as the unique breast-punch example among the seven known New York-style Brasher Doubloons.
This coin tells more than a price story. It connects the unstable money of the Confederation period, the skill of a respected New York goldsmith, and the birth of a national coinage system. It also shows how elite collectors value coins that combine rarity, history, design, and mystery.
Today, the coin remains unique. Six New York-style Brasher Doubloons carry the “EB” punch on the eagle’s wing. Only this piece carries the mark on the eagle’s breast.
A New Nation Needed Reliable Money
George Washington took the oath of office on April 30, 1789, in New York City. The United States Mint did not yet exist. Congress established the Mint three years later through the Coinage Act of April 2, 1792.
Before federal coinage, Americans used a mix of foreign coins. Spanish milled dollars, pieces of eight, Spanish gold doubloons, and other European and Latin American coins moved through commerce. However, many pieces varied in weight and fineness. Merchants needed trusted assayers.
Ephraim Brasher filled that role. Brasher worked as a New York goldsmith, silversmith, assayer, and regulator. He tested gold and silver coins, adjusted coins when needed, and stamped acceptable pieces with his oval “EB” hallmark. Heritage notes that the Bank of New York used goldsmiths such as Brasher to test coins received in routine commerce.
Therefore, the “EB” mark meant more than authorship. It signaled trust.
Who Was Ephraim Brasher?
Ephraim Brasher was baptized in New York on April 18, 1744. He spent his life and career in New York, except for the period of British occupation when he and his family lived in Red Hook, Dutchess County. Church records place his death on November 10, 1810.
Brasher also held civic posts. He served as sanitary commissioner, coroner, assistant justice, election inspector, and commissioner of excise. In addition, he performed assay work for the United States Mint in 1792, after the new Mint needed outside help with coin assays.
Brasher also had an important neighbor. George Washington lived near him in New York, and Washington purchased silverware made by Brasher for formal use.
The Failed Copper Petition and the Gold Doubloons
On February 11, 1787, John Bailey and Ephraim Brasher petitioned New York for the right to produce copper coins. The state did not approve their proposal. Instead, New York moved toward regulating copper coins already in circulation.
Brasher then produced his famous gold pieces. Numismatists continue to debate their exact purpose. Some authorities see them as private gold coins intended for circulation. Others have argued that they may have served as patterns connected to the copper-coinage petition. PCGS notes that evidence does not fully settle either theory.
Even so, the historical importance remains clear. The Brasher Doubloons rank among the earliest private gold coins produced in the United States for circulation. The ANA describes them as the first gold coins produced in the U.S. intended for circulation and values them at about $15 in their time.
One point needs careful wording. Some earlier accounts called the Brasher Doubloons “legal tender.” The Smithsonian states that Brasher’s coins were not official legal tender. Therefore, CoinWeek should use “intended for circulation,” “private gold coinage,” or “early American gold coinage” instead of calling them official legal tender.
The Design: New York on One Side, America on the Other
The New York-style Brasher Doubloon has a distinctly American design.
The obverse uses the arms of New York. It shows the sun rising over mountains and water. Brasher placed his name below the waves. Around the design appears the legend NOVA EBORACA COLUMBIA EXCELSIOR, which translates to “New York, America, Ever Higher.”
The reverse shows an eagle with wings spread, a shield on its breast, arrows, an olive branch, and 13 stars. The legend reads UNUM E PLURIBUS, or “One of Many.” These devices echo the Great Seal of the United States. The Continental Congress officially adopted the Great Seal on June 20, 1782.
The familiar phrase later became E Pluribus Unum. It still appears on United States coinage.
The Unique “EB on Breast” Example
The breast-punch Brasher Doubloon differs from the other six known New York-style examples. Brasher placed his oval “EB” counterstamp on the shield that covers the eagle’s breast. On the other six, the mark appears on the eagle’s wing.
Collectors have long suggested that this coin may have been one of the first pieces counterstamped. The theory says the breast punch disturbed the opposite side of the coin more visibly. Therefore, Brasher may have moved the mark to the wing on later examples. However, this remains a numismatic interpretation, not a proven fact.
A 2012 CoinWeek reader comment by Saul Teichman made that point well. He noted that researchers do not know whether Brasher struck several coins first and then counterstamped them, or whether he struck and counterstamped each piece as he made it. He suggested that the breast-punch piece may have been the first or second counterstamped example, but he also cautioned that this may be “about the best we can determine.”
That careful framing strengthens the story. It keeps the mystery, but it avoids overstatement.
From Bushnell to Garrett
The documented pedigree of the breast-punch Brasher Doubloon begins in the 19th century. Heritage lists the coin as the Bushnell specimen and records its 1882 appearance in the Charles I. Bushnell Collection sale conducted by S.H. and H. Chapman. Edouard Frossard paid $505 for the coin.
Frossard later sold the coin to T. Harrison Garrett, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad president and patriarch of the Garrett collecting family. The coin then remained with the Garrett Collection for about a century. Eventually, Johns Hopkins University received the collection and sold it through Bowers and Ruddy Galleries in a four-part auction series from 1979 to 1981.
In March 1981, the breast-punch Brasher Doubloon sold as lot 2340 in the final Garrett sale. It realized $625,000.
That price marked a dramatic leap from $505 in 1882. Yet the coin’s largest gains still lay ahead.
The Gold Rush Collection and the 2005 Sale
After the Garrett sale, an anonymous Florida collector owned the coin. In 1994, dealer Don Kagin purchased it and later sold a half interest to dealer Jay Parrino. According to the original CoinWeek account, they held it for about three months before selling it to another anonymous collector-investor.
In 1998, dealer Al Adams of Gold Rush Gallery learned that the coin was available. He represented a major collector who was building a complete design type set of U.S. gold coins in Mint State and Proof formats. Mark Ferguson knew many of the people involved in these transactions and sold coins into that collection through Adams. Ferguson also recalled Adams describing the owner as a “Quintessential Collector.”
The Gold Rush Collection later came to market at Heritage’s January 2005 Florida United Numismatists sale. There, the breast-punch Brasher Doubloon appeared as NGC XF45 and realized $2,990,000. Heritage’s auction record confirms the January 12, 2005 sale price.
Steve Contursi of Rare Coin Wholesalers and Don Kagin bought the coin. Contursi took a two-thirds position, while Kagin took one-third. They did not buy it for a prearranged customer. Instead, they bought it because the coin mattered.
Sharing the Coin With the Public
Contursi and Kagin treated the Brasher Doubloon as more than inventory. They built a display case, loaned the coin to the American Numismatic Association’s Money Museum in Colorado Springs, and later displayed it at other venues.
Kagin later described the coin as “an iconic legacy coin” with history, art, design, and mystery. That assessment still captures the coin’s appeal.
In 2011, John Albanese, founder of CAC, purchased the coin through transactions involving Contursi and Blanchard and Company. Blanchard & Company reported in a CoinWeek article that an anonymous buyer paid $7,395,000 on November 29, 2011, for the unique 1787 Brasher Doubloon with the “EB” counterstamp on the eagle’s breast.
At the time, that transaction placed the coin at the top of the nonfederal American coin market. Coin World also noted that the same coin had set the prior nonfederal American record when it sold for $2.99 million in 2005.
After 2011: The Market Caught Up
The original 2012 article ended with the $7.395 million private sale. The market has changed since then.
In 2020, the breast-punch Brasher Doubloon surfaced in market discussion again. Heritage’s 2021 catalog notes that the coin had a former Wall Street executive in its later ownership chain and that Jeff Sherid of PCAG Inc. privately offered it in June 2020 for $15 million.
Then, in January 2021, another Brasher Doubloon made headlines. The finest-known New York-style Brasher Doubloon, an “EB on Wing” example graded NGC MS65★ from the Donald G. Partrick Collection, sold at Heritage for $9,360,000. NGC called it the highest-graded Brasher Doubloon and reported that the result set records for an NGC-certified coin and for any gold coin at auction at that time.
That sale did not replace the uniqueness of the breast-punch coin. Instead, it strengthened the entire Brasher market. It also confirmed what leading collectors already understood: the Brasher Doubloon family sits at the top of early American numismatics.
The Brasher Doubloon and the $10 Million Question
In 2012, the breast-punch Brasher Doubloon looked like a natural candidate to become the first $10 million coin. That milestone soon came elsewhere. A 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar crossed $10 million in 2013, and the only 1933 Double Eagle legally allowed in private hands sold for $18.9 million at Sotheby’s in 2021.
Still, the Brasher Doubloon remains central to any discussion of eight-figure coins. Its rarity matters. Its history matters more.
The art market also offers a useful comparison. In 2012, Edvard Munch’s The Scream sold for $119.9 million. Sotheby’s described that 1895 work as one of four versions and the only one then in private hands.
Coins trade in a smaller market than paintings. However, great coins share the same traits that drive top art prices. They carry scarcity, provenance, cultural recognition, and historical importance.
The Brasher Doubloon has all four.
A Coin With Cultural Reach
Few coins have entered popular culture like the Brasher Doubloon.
Raymond Chandler used the coin as the central object in his 1942 Philip Marlowe novel The High Window. Hollywood then adapted the story twice: first as Time to Kill in 1942, and later as The Brasher Doubloon in 1947. The New York Fed’s Liberty Street Economics blog notes that the book and both films use the Brasher Doubloon as a plot device.
That cultural presence matters. The name “doubloon” also reaches beyond numismatics. It evokes Spanish colonial gold, pirate lore, and Mardi Gras throws in New Orleans. Because of that, the word carries meaning even for people who do not collect coins.
Yet the Brasher Doubloon itself stands apart from folklore. It is not a fantasy treasure. It is a real object from the earliest years of the United States.
Why the Breast-Punch Brasher Still Matters
The breast-punch Brasher Doubloon brings together several layers of American history.
It reflects the money problems of a new nation. It shows the role of private enterprise before the federal Mint. It links New York commerce, George Washington’s neighborhood, and the rise of American coinage standards. It also preserves Brasher’s own reputation as a trusted assayer and goldsmith.
Most important, it remains unique.
Seven New York-style Brasher Doubloons survive. Six carry the hallmark on the wing. Only one carries it on the eagle’s breast. If collectors count the two Lima-style Brasher Doubloons as part of the broader Brasher gold family, NGC reports nine known Brasher gold pieces.
That distinction gives editors and collectors a clearer way to describe the coin. The breast-punch coin is not simply “a Brasher Doubloon.” It is the only New York-style Brasher Doubloon with the “EB” punch on the eagle’s breast.
From $505 to a National Treasure
The known price record tells a powerful story.
The coin sold for $505 in 1882. It realized $625,000 in 1981. It brought $2,990,000 in 2005. Then it sold privately for $7,395,000 in 2011. In 2020, market reporting placed a $15 million asking price on the same unique coin.
Those numbers show appreciation. However, price alone does not explain the coin.
The 1787 “EB on Breast” Brasher Doubloon survives because collectors recognized its importance again and again. Bushnell preserved it. Garrett held it. Later owners competed for it. Dealers promoted it. Museums displayed related Brasher pieces. Scholars debated its purpose. Meanwhile, the coin itself continued to represent the same thing: confidence in American money before America had a federal Mint.
That is why the Brasher Doubloon still commands attention.
It is rare. It is historic. It is beautiful. And, more than two centuries after Ephraim Brasher stamped his initials into gold, it still carries his guarantee.
