NEW YORK — The gold spike from the 1923 ceremony marking completion of the Alaska Railroad, in private hands since it was driven by President Warren G. Harding, is up for sale.
Auction house Christie’s announced plans for a January sale of the spike in a social media post earlier this month. A listing on the Christie’s website estimates the spike’s value at $30,000 to $50,000, and says it has been in the hands of its current owner since it was purchased in July 1983 at a California antique show. Its last public display was as part of the Alaska Centennial exposition in 1967. It will be auctioned Jan. 24 as part of Christie’s Americana Week.
An Anchorage Daily News article by historian David Reamer recounts the spike’s history. Presented to Col. Frederick Mears, the engineer for the railroad project, by the city of Anchorage, Mears — who had by then left the state after being recalled to active military duty — loaned it back for use in the ceremony with Harding on July 15, 1923, in Nenana, Alaska, at the north end of a bridge over the Tanana River named for Mears. It was one of the last public appearances by Harding, who became ill on the return journey and died on Aug. 2 in San Francisco of what is now believed to be a heart attack.
It will be the second significant spike from a last-spike ceremony sold by Christie’s in two years. In January 2023, the “Arizona Spike” — an iron, gold, and silver spike from the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 sold for $2.22 million [see “‘Arizona Spike’ sells …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 31, 2023]. Christie’s had estimated the value of that spike at $300,000 to $500,000 before its auction.
How much actual gold is in it and what carat it is would be nice to know.
Incorrect date for President Harding driving the golden spike. Probably meant 1923 instead. “…. ceremony with Harding on July 15, 2023, in Nenana, Alaska”