50 Dollars, United States Assay Office of Gold, United States, 1851

Description (Brief):

One (1) 50 dollar coin

Description (Brief)

United States, 1851

Description (Brief)

Obverse Image: Eagle standing on a rock, holding a shield, with a ribbon in its beak.

Description (Brief)

Obverse Text: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA / AUGUSTUS HUMBERT UNITED STATES ASSAYER OF GOLD CALIFORNIA / 1851 / 887 THOUS / FIFTY DOLLS

Description (Brief)

Reverse Image: Engine-turned design.

Description (Brief)

Reverse Text: N/A

As early as 1850, agitation began in Congress for the establishment of a San Francisco branch of the United States Mint. This action was blocked by people from New York-who wanted a branch in their own state-and from Georgia and Louisiana-who argued that any California operation would represent unfair competition to the branch mints in Dahlonega and New Orleans.

The opposition won, and San Francisco would go without a mint for another four years. But it did get an odd sort of hybrid, the United States Assay Office of Gold, striking an odd sort of money-a gigantic, fifty-dollar ingot that would also do duty as a coin. The arrangement was made by the Treasury Department under a contract with Moffat & Company, private assayers and gold coiners in San Francisco.

Augustus Humbert came west to oversee the operation, which got under way at the end of January 1851. For most of the next two years, Humbert's fifty-dollar "slugs" were the principal accepted currency in California. He was eventually allowed to turn his attentions to the production of smaller, and altogether more useful, coins, ten- and twenty-dollar pieces. And his operation finally laid the framework for a formal, normal branch Mint, which began the production of ordinary federal coinage in the spring of 1854.

Date Made: 1851

Mint: United States Assay Office of Gold

Place Made: United States: California, San Francisco

See more items in: Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection, Coins, Numismatics, Coins, Currency and Medals, Josiah K. Lilly Jr. Collection, Legendary Coins

Exhibition: Value of Money

Exhibition Location: National Museum of American History

Related Web Publication: http://americanhistory.si.edu/coins/glossary.cfm

Related Publication: Zoomable Image and Details, Glossary of Coins and Currency Terms

Credit Line: Estate of Josiah K. Lilly

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: NU.68.159.1142Accession Number: 283645Catalog Number: 68.159.1142

Object Name: coiningot

Physical Description: gold (overall metal)0 (overall die axis)0 (overall die axis measurement)struck (overall production method)Measurements: overall: .5 cm x 4.2 cm; 3/16 in x 1 21/32 in

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ab-45a7-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_1101903

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