Fabulous!
1914-D $5.00
Indian Gold
NGC MS-65

No question about it $5.00 Indian Gold in MS64 and better condition are VERY under priced relative to other U.S. Gold Series especially the $2.50 coins. Jeepers, common MS65 $2.50 gold Indians are now selling for over $4,000!

This wonderfully original 1914-D is a genuine rarity. NGC has graded just 6 coins of this date in MS65 condition and NOT a single coin graded higher. PCGS has graded 12 MS65 and only 2 finer.

Information on Buying this Coin

Assassination of an Archduke, 1914

Two bullets fired on a Sarajevo street on a sunny June morning in 1914 set in motion a series of events that shaped the world we live in today. World War One, World War Two, the Cold War and its conclusion all trace their origins to the gunshots that interrupted that summer day.

The victims, Archduke Franz Ferdinand - heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie, were in the Bosnian city in conjunction with Austrian troop exercises nearby. The couple was returning from an official visit to City Hall. The assassin, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip burned with the fire of Slavic nationalism. He envisioned the death of the Archduke as the key that would unlock the shackles binding his people to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

A third party, Serbia, figured prominently in the plot. Independent Serbia provided the guns, ammunition and training that made the assassination possible.

The Balkan Region of Europe entered the twentieth century much as she left it: a caldron of seething political intrigue needing only the slightest increase of heat to boil over into open conflict. The shots that day in Sarajevo pushed the caldron to the boiling point and beyond.

A Royal Murder

Seven conspirators joined the crowd lining the Archduke's route to City Hall. Each took a different position, ready to attack the royal car if the opportunity presented itself. The six-car procession approached one conspirator, Gabrinovic (or Cabrinovic), who threw his bomb only to see it bounce off the Archduke's car and explode near the following car.

Unhurt, the Archduke and his wife sped to the reception at City Hall. The ceremonies finished, the Royal procession amazingly retraced its steps bringing the Archduke into the range of the leader of the conspiracy, Gavrilo Princip. More amazingly, the royal car stopped right in front of Princip providing him the opportunity to fire two shots. Both bullets hit home.

Borijove Jevtic, one of the conspirators gave this eyewitness account:

"When Francis Ferdinand and his retinue drove from the station they were allowed to pass the first two conspirators. The motor cars were driving too fast to make an attempt feasible and in the crowd were many Serbians; throwing a grenade would have killed many innocent people.

When the car passed Gabrinovic, the compositor, he threw his grenade. It hit the side of the car, but Francis Ferdinand with presence of mind threw himself back and was uninjured. Several officers riding in his attendance were injured.

The cars sped to the Town Hall and the rest of the conspirators did not interfere with them. After the reception in the Town Hall General Potiorek, the Austrian Commander, pleaded with Francis Ferdinand to leave the city, as it was seething with rebellion. The Archduke was persuaded to drive the shortest way out of the city and to go quickly.

The road to the maneuvers was shaped like the letter V, making a sharp turn at the bridge over the River Nilgacka. Francis Ferdinand's car could go fast enough until it reached this spot but here it was forced to slow down for the turn. Here Princip had taken his stand.

As the car came abreast he stepped forward from the curb, drew his automatic pistol from his coat and fired two shots. The first struck the wife of the Archduke, the Archduchess Sofia, in the abdomen. She was an expectant mother. She died instantly.

The second bullet struck the Archduke close to the heart.

He uttered only one word, 'Sofia' -- a call to his stricken wife. Then his head fell back and he collapsed. He died almost instantly.

The officers seized Princip. They beat him over the head with the flat of their swords. They knocked him down, they kicked him, scraped the skin from his neck with the edges of their swords, tortured him, all but killed him."

Another Perspective

Count Franz von Harrach rode on the running board of the royal car serving as a bodyguard for the Archduke. His account begins immediately after Princip fires his two shots:

"As the car quickly reversed, a thin stream of blood spurted from His Highness's mouth onto my right cheek. As I was pulling out my handkerchief to wipe the blood away from his mouth, the Duchess cried out to him, 'In Heaven's name, what has happened to you?' At that she slid off the seat and lay on the floor of the car, with her face between his knees.

I had no idea that she too was hit and thought she had simply fainted with fright. Then I heard His Imperial Highness say, 'Sopherl, Sopherl, don't die. Stay alive for the children!'

At that, I seized the Archduke by the collar of his uniform, to stop his head dropping forward and asked him if he was in great pain. He answered me quite distinctly, 'It's nothing!' His face began to twist somewhat but he went on repeating, six or seven times, ever more faintly as he gradually lost consciousness, 'It's nothing!' Then, after a short pause, there was a violent choking sound caused by the bleeding. It was stopped as we reached the Konak."

References:
   Brook-Shepard, Gordon, Archduke of Sarajevo (1984); Dedijer, Vladimir, The Road To Sarajevo (1966); Morton, Frederick, Thunder At Twilight (1989).

Resources on the Web:
   Archduke Franz Ferdinand - bio

THE GREAT WAR

At 11 p.m. on 4th August, 1914 Britain found herself at war in Europe. Four years and three months later , before dawn on 11th November, 1918, British soldiers recaptured the Belgian town of Mons. On this same day an Armistice was signed at 5 a.m. in a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiègne in Northern France and hostilities ceased six hours later at eleven o'clock.

Map of Europe, 1914 (189 KB)

During the War's early years Britain (supported loyally by troops from her Empire and Commonwealth, such as; Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) and her Allies, France and Russia, fought against Germany and Austro-Hungary. At the War's end many more countries were involved, including; the United States, Turkey, Japan, Italy. What had started over the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the decaying Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo on 28th June, 1914 only concluded after the deaths of tens of millions of soldiers and civilians.

The empires of Germany, Austro-Hungary, Turkey, and Russia had disappeared, countries had lost land or gained land, new counties were created (for example, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia), and new threatening political systems had taken over, or were about to take over in Russia and Germany respectively.

Map of the Balkans, 1914 (96 KB)

In the past, wars were often of comparatively short duration, with seasonal campaigns, and usually fought between opposing sides each using mercenary or professional armies. The Great War was radically different. Fighting, between volunteer or conscripted soldiers in trenches separated by no-man's-land from their enemy in similar trenches, continued all year; and new, improved methods of killing had evolved such that the scale of injury and death was beyond that which any person had believed possible. With industrialisation in Europe, invention and greatly enhanced mass-production manufacturing techniques gave rise to plentiful supplies of poison gas, tanks, powerful explosives, flame-throwers, hand-grenades, fighter and bomber aircraft, and, above all, machine-guns, and accurate long-range artillery. Killing was on a gargantuan scale, and surprise and inventiveness were forgotten by Generals who developed their new strategy of "attrition". Especially on the Western Front, where all too often only minimal ground was lost or won, battles endured their pitiless course for months, and casualties were reckoned in hundreds of thousands. Names such as The Somme, Passchendaele, and Verdun still evoke awful memories of wanton sacrifice and needless death.

Although also involved in Gallipoli, Salonika, and parts of Africa, much of Britain's war was centred on the Western Front. Simply put, this was an intricate system of trenches which ran from the Belgium coast, through northern France, to the German border. With all its twists, turns, and salients its length is difficult to give exactly; but at it greatest extent, in 1918, the British section probably extended for about 75 miles. Not all this length was involved in battle all the time, though even "quiet" parts suffered not infrequently from shelling, and trench raids. One area, however, did suffer from continuous, unremitting warfare - this was the area which stretched around the Belgium town of Ypres. Overlooked on three sides by the Germans it was shelled day and night for four years. The flat, low-lying clay land was flooded and the millions of shells which fell into it churned it over and over again into an impassable, bloody, choking quagmire. During the Battle of Third Ypres ("Passchendaele") from August to November, 1917 British and Commonwealth soldiers attacked out from this salient and, after suffering about 400,000 casualties, they gained not more than about four miles of ground.

In the early winter, after Passchendaele had drawn to its close, the War still had a year to run, and the Battle of Cambrai, the massive German Spring Offensive of 1918, the American attacks at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne, and the Allies final three months advance still had to be paid for with the lives of a multitude young soldiers.

At the Armistice there was very little celebration by the battle-weary front-line soldiers. That the War had ended and that they, despite fearful odds, were still alive was often difficult to comprehend. Once the fact had been assimilated, however, all they wanted to do was to go back home to a country they knew and to cherished relatives and families.

Map of Europe, 1919 (155 KB)

In the following years many former soldiers suffered many disappointments - for, after the initial euphoria of their return was over, they felt themselves to be unthanked and unappreciated. In Britain living conditions in industrialised towns were poor and work very hard to come-by - especially during the Depression years of the 1930s.

Many never talked to anyone about their experiences in the trenches. Perhaps they just wanted to put from their minds the harrowing memories of those awful times; or maybe they thought that no one who had not been there could possibly to understand the dreadful conditions which they had endured. A few kept diaries of their wartime experiences. In recent years, after the deaths of their writers, some of these have come down to relatives who have been surprised to find that great-grandfathers, for example, fought in the Great War. The recipients have been astounded by what they have read about the conditions which prevailed in the trenches. As a result some of these recollections have been published as books.

To the British and Allied cause, Ireland contributed three army divisions: 10th (Irish), 16th (Irish), and 36th (Ulster). All fought gallantly, and all suffered fearful casualties. The 10th campaigned mainly in Gallipoli and Salonika. The 16th and 36th fought in various battles on the Western Front - the former will be remembered particularly for it part in attacking Ginchy in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and the latter for its heroic failure at Thiepval in the same battle. Later, in June 1917, both these Divisions fought side-by-side and as comrades-in- arms when they helped to capture the Messines Ridge.