Notes:
"In an unprecedented first for numismatics, authentic California Gold Rush era ingots recovered from the fabled S.S. Central America and the original pair of assayers' dies will be used to strike special commemorative gold pieces of the famous 1855 Kellogg & Company $50 round 'slug.'

The cameo proof and uncirculated restrikes will be produced by the California Historical Society in San Francisco.  Each coin will contain 2.5 ounces of pure Gold Rush era gold from renowned Kellogg & Humbert ingots.

'The $50 slug is the "King of Territorial Gold."  These restrikes are a way for collectors to own a piece of Gold Rush history at a fraction of the cost of the unique ingots from the Central America,' said Dwight Manley, Managing Partner of California Gold Marketing Group.

'Transfer dies have been prepared from the original 1855 Kellogg & Company dies engraved by Ferdinand Gruner, and the planchets are made from Kellogg & Humbert gold bars from the ship's 1857 cargo.  In addition, the commemoratives will be struck in San Francisco on a coin press that was used at the San Francisco Mint,' explained Manley.
   
'A television documentary crew is chronicling each and every step of this historic event.'

A trial strike specimen will be on display during the American Numismatic Association World's Fair of Money convention in Atlanta, August 8 - 12, at the 'Ship of Gold' exhibit.
 
Formal striking of the commemoratives is scheduled to begin in San Francisco on August 20.  That is the 144th anniversary of the exact date the gold sailed from San Francisco harbor on its journey to Panama where it then was taken by railroad to the Central America for its uncompleted, fabled 23-day voyage to New York City.

Only a dozen original 1855 Kellogg $50 slugs are known to exist.  The largest denomination produced during the California Gold Rush, original examples have traded for as much as $300,000.

The commemorative's design is slightly modified to differentiate it from the 1855 original.  The ribbon in the eagle's beak on the reverse contains the inscriptions 'S.S. CENTRAL AMERICA GOLD' and 'C.H.S.' for California Historical Society.  There is no inscription on the ribbon in the original design. 
   
The commemoratives are referenced in the 2002 edition of A Guide Book of United States (St. Martin's Press, New York City), the annual, authoritative work known by collectors as the 'Red Book.'
   
Known today as 'the Ship of Gold,' the Central America sank in a hurricane in 1857 while carrying several tons of California gold from Panama to New York City.  The historic coins and gold bars were discovered in the late 1980s and purchased by Manley's group in December 1999 in the world's largest numismatic transaction.

More than 7,000 recovered coins and hundreds of ingots were quickly sold after entering the marketplace in phases starting in February 2000.  Less than 500 coins and 100 ingots remain.

The suggested retail price of the Kellogg commemoratives will be approximately $5,000.

'Due to the limited supply of authentic ingots, a maximum of only 5,000 authorized restrikes can be made.  Each will be housed in a custom-made, hand-hammered copper frame reminiscent of the 1915 holders for commemorative gold coins of San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition,' said Manley.
   
A certificate of authenticity from the California Historical Society will accompany each restrike.  The project is expected to raise up to a quarter-million dollars for the nonprofit California Historical Society.

'These magnificent coins, made using the original tools and gold from this important era of our country, will let people literally hold the Gold Rush in their hands,' said Stephen Becker, Executive Director of the
California Historical Society.  "We're thrilled to help history come alive by bringing this project to San Francisco."

'It's really amazing that this gold and these dies have survived to the present day.  It's a tremendous historical coincidence,' said Bob Evans, curator of the treasure and the chief scientist and historian on the 1980s mission that found and recovered the gold.

The working transfer dies were crafted from original Kellogg dies previously owned by territorial gold specialist and author, Donald Kagin of Tiburon, California.  The dies were not aboard the Central America.  (Not made of gold, the metal dies would have been destroyed if they had been on the ocean floor for more than 130 years with the treasure.)

'Outside of a museum, these are the only known surviving dies from a private assayer of that era.  The dies still contained some gold flakes from 1855,' Kagin explained. 

'When the Kellogg and Humbert ingots first became available on the market, I thought it would be a great idea to produce restrikes from the original gold.  The historical importance of this can not be overstated,' he said.

The recovered ship's cargo contained 330 Kellogg & Humbert ingots.  About 60 of them, each weighing roughly 200 to 500 ounces, have been used to produce the planchets for the gold commemoratives. 

Manley said the current market value of the melted ingots ranged from $200,000 to nearly $1 million.  Evans emphasized that steps were taken to save identifiable portions of each bar.

'We wanted to preserve the ingots' historical assayers' marks for posterity.  The faces of the bars were carefully cut and milled to permanently retain a layer of gold that contains the fundamental information,
such as the ingot's weight and fineness, as well as the Kellogg & Humbert imprint,' explained Evans.

Production of the restrikes involved months of planning to find a suitable site in San Francisco.  The California Historical Society could not physically host the coin striking because of the size and weight of the coining press, 16,000 pounds. 

The press originally was used at the San Francisco Mint between 1973 and 1998. 

'This is nice for someone to be able to afford a piece of those ingots.  The gold was supposed to be made into coins in 1857, so it's finally fulfilling its destiny.  It is a terrific idea to produce a collectible like this,' said dealer Anthony Terranova of New York City, a specialist in early U.S. coins and territorial gold. 

'People make collectibles out of all sorts of things, such as sports items, so why not this, a glittering piece of the Old West?  I think it's a wonderful idea.'

Manley agreed: 'It's the only national treasure that is "divisible," and we've acted on that.  Instead of 60 potential treasure owners, we've turned that into 5,000.  We've created the opportunity for 5,000 additional people to own a piece of the treasure at a fraction of the price that a Kellogg & Humbert ingot or what an original $50 slug would have cost.'

-- Press release dated July 26, 2001 from Donn Pearlman

Images courtesy of Donn Pearlmann
Photos by Doug Plascencia and Lyle Engleson

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