1852/1 UNITED STATES ASSAY OFFICE OF GOLD
$20
Variety Equivalents:
Kagin 9, Breen 7710, KM 30
History of the United States Assay Office
While the government’s
response to the need for an adequate coinage was slow and never
satisfactory, two institutions were established (the State Assay Office of
California and the United States Assay Office) that did provide an
unconventional and partly successful attempt to supply a frontier area
with an acceptable quantity of an "official" circulating medium.
The private coinage
proscription was not enforced by the public or government because the
State Assay Office failed to mint enough ingots for the local demand.
Ironically, an institution that was designed to replace the need for
private gold minting actually preserved it (i.e., Moffat & Co.'s
undebased coins from the first period continued in circulation) and in
fact stimulated its resurgence (i.e., the second period of private gold
coinage).
The State Assay Office of
California
The United States Assay
Office under Moffat & Co. (1851-1852)
The United States Assay
Office under Curtis, Perry & Ward (1852-1853)
--Reprinted with permission of the author
from Donald H. Kagin's, "Private Gold Coins and Patterns of the
United States", copyright 1981, Arco Publishing, Inc. of New
York, pp 163-167.
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Images courtesy of Ira
& Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles, Inc.
Significant
examples:
PCGS Proof-65 (illustrated above). Ex - Personal property of
Augustus Humbert - Captain Andrew Zabriskie - Colonel James W.
Ellsworth - John Work Garrett (acquired in March 1923) - Bowers
& Ruddy Galleries' "The Garrett Collection Sales",
Part 2, March 26-27, 1980, Lot 890, "407.6 grains" @
$325,000.00 - Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles
Sale, October 2000
Notes:
Both Breen and Kagin indicate
that 7,500 of these were struck on a single day between March 5
and April 2, 1852. Most examples seen have a thin die crack
connecting the bottoms of the obverse legends from the top of the
first T in TWENTY to the bottom of the second A in AMERICA (this die
crack even appears on the Proof Humbert-Garrett specimen illustrated
above).
Sources and/or recommended
reading:
"Private Gold Coins and Patterns of the United States" by
Donald H. Kagin
"Walter Breen's
Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins" by Walter
Breen
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