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Sale 7
Lot 1380
AUGUSTUS HUMBERT'S OWN GEM PROOF 1852/1 $20. PCGS graded Proof 65 Augustus Humbert's personal specimen. One must stand in awe and reverence in the presence of such a coin. For before us we behold a pillar of history from the free-wheeling early days of the California Gold Rush. Not only is this a scarce territorial issue, but this coin is struck in proof, one of two known, and the better of the two. Furthermore, this is Augustus Humbert's own specimen, which he kept in his personal collection. Struck from polished dies and displaying surfaces identical to a typical United States proof coin of the period. The surfaces are pristine, the mirror fields shimmer while the devices and lettering are resplendent with frost. A fine die crack is noted at the tops of TWENTY D and extending through the bottoms of UNITED and out the top of the first S of STATES. Another fine die crack extends from the base of the first S of STATES and OF AMERICA nearly to the ground underneath the eagle. This is the identical die state to the other known proof example, which was owned by John Kellogg, which is graded a point lower. Naturally the fields and devices are pristine, which is extraordinary for a gold coin of this era. Mr. Humbert obviously took great care of this coin, and others in his personal collection, as historic and important records of his work at the Assay Office.
Through the span of history the privilege of coining money has been reserved for the king or ruling party. From the earliest Greek coins to todays paper currency, the signature or mark of the coiner was part of the guarantee that the coin was worth the value stated, and that the metal was not debased with lower value alloys. The penalties for a coiner who debased coinage were historically death, as the public has never liked to be cheated by accepting debased coinage. Hence, the only job security a coiner could have was to issue coinage precisely as prescribed by law, and sign each coin with initials of the maker.
On this coin we have the name AUGUSTUS HUMBERT emblazoned across the reverse, followed by UNITED STATES ASSAYER OF GOLD, CALIFORNIA / 1852. The lovely engine turned reverse is surrounded by a small border of proof mirroring, while the center was reserved for the lettering. Thus, here we have a signed piece of numismatic art, struck especially for the Assayer, Augustus Humbert, for his personal coin collection. A more historic coin can scarcely be imagined from the California gold rush.
The history of this coin is fascinating. Gold was first discovered in California in 1848, within a year thousands of fortune seekers had made their way to California by boat or over land. Gold was discovered in river beds, valleys and mountains. However, there was no efficient system for converting all the gold dust, nuggets and granules into money. Merchants would accept gold in the raw form, but then would be forced to sell it to gold dust dealers, or the miners would take their gold to the dealers themselves. However, the merchants and miners were flagrantly under paid for their gold, receiving only $6 to $8 per ounce, the gold dust dealers would then smelt the gold into ingots, and sell them for $16 to $18 per ounce, others made similar profits. In late 1849, hundreds of outraged San Francisco merchants and miners petitioned the Military Governor R. B. Mason to set up a State Assay Office. This would issue ingots officially stamped with fineness, weight, and value, which would rid the public of these abuses. Naturally, the gold dust dealers and their friends opposed this. Luckily, sanity prevailed and the State Assay Office was authorized on April 20, 1850. This was clearly a temporary measure, as everyone knew that if the ingots passed as money--which they certainly would--then the State Assay Office would be in violation of the Constitution, which forbids state coining money. The only real solution was to establish a federal branch mint in the area.
To establish a branch mint, Senators Thomas Hart Benton and William McKendree Gwin submitted a bill to establish a branch mint in San Francisco. Remarkably, this proposal was attacked on the grounds that a new branch mint would be competition for the branch mints in Dahlonega and New Orleans. Even Pennsylvania opposed the new branch mint on grounds that it might compete with the main mint! As a result of this opposition, a compromise was reached on September 30, 1850 which established not a branch mint, but a federal Assay Office of Gold in San Francisco, authorizing issue of ingots of $50 to $10,000 value "to be struck of refined gold, of uniform fineness, and with appropriate legends and devices, similar to those on our smaller coins with their value conspicuously marked, and the inscriptions LIBERTY and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA." Mint Director Patterson and the California authorities knew well that the ingots would circulate as money.
One of the biggest problems facing the new Assay Office, or the proposed branch mint, was the lack of parting acids (concentrated nitric, sulfuric and hydrochloric acids) needed to refine the native California ore to the standard 90 percent pure gold, 10 percent copper alloy. The native California ore was usually found to contain 85 to 92 percent gold, with the balance silver. Hence, the silver needed to be removed from the gold, using parting acids and extremely scarce copper was needed to alloy the gold for coinage. The acids were not locally made, and were very dangerous to ship around Cape Horn, or through Panama, then moved overland to the Pacific side, and shipped to San Francisco. Mint Director George N. Eckert estimated that 150,000 pounds of parting acids would be needed each year to refine the massive flow of gold into the San Francisco area and no one was willing to undertake this dangerous task of shipping the acids.
By labeling the new coins "ingots" as required, and issuing them through the defacto provisional branch mint from the United States Assay Office of Gold was a slick solution, evading possible legal problems. Philadelphia Mint officials treated Augustus Humbert as a branch mint superintendent, requiring him to submit monthly reports on gold and unparted ingot manufacturers on the same kinds of forms used by all branch mints. These Philadelphia Mint officials supervised the manufacture of master dies and hubs for the ingots, and in case the parting acid problem was solved, Philadelphia even shipped S mint dies to the Assay Office dated 1853 for half dimes through double eagle. These S mint dies, of course, were not used, as authorization was never received, and enough parting acids could not be obtained to separate the silver from the gold in sufficient quantity.
The $50 ingots or "slugs" or "Californians" did pass as money, for most of 1851-53 they were the principal accepted currency in California. Humbert arrived in San Francisco January 30, 1851 bringing with him master dies and hubs, and struck the first octagonal ingots the next day. Authorization preceded Humbert from President Fillmore to the Collector of Customs T. Butler King (Dec. 2, 1850) which allowed King to receive any and all issues from the new Assay Office in payment of tariffs, an effective recognition that they passed as federal money from the first day of issue.
Prior to the issuance of the $50 slugs, a number of small private gold coins had been issued, many of these circulated at a discount to the stated value, and virtually all these smaller denomination gold coins were gathered up and melted into the new Humbert $50 slugs. This created a tremendous coin shortage, articles priced below $50 could not be purchased without smaller coins for change. The California State Constitution forbade paper currency of any kind, and coins of $5 to $20 became scarce enough to command a premium. Copper and small silver coinage was virtually non-existent in the area.
Federal authorities back east refused to allow the Assay Office to issue denominations smaller than $50. Foreign coins were brought in and also traded at premiums, as the shortage of small change grew more acute. Political action continued to give and take away authorization for smaller gold denominations. Finally, legislation was passed allowing the establishment of a branch mint in San Francisco, which opened in 1854, using much of the same equipment from the Assay Office for its initial operations.
Thus, early days at the Assay Office were filled with many problems.
The striking of $10 and $20 coins was authorized in a letter from Secretary of the Treasury Corwin dated December 9, 1851 to Augustus Humbert. Humbert was overjoyed when he received the letter on January 10, 1852. Dies to strike $10 and $20 coins had already been prepared in 1851, but no authorization had been received to use them, hence the dies were altered to 1852/1 at this time. Two days after Corwin's letter arrived authorizing the coinage, another letter arrived rescinding the authorization to coin $10 and $20 pieces. Of course, the acute shortage of smaller denomination gold coins was creating many problems. One can imagine the frustration of not being allowed to address these shortages due to bureaucratic whimsy. More letters to Secretary Corwin followed, and finally a letter dated January 7, 1852 arrived February 11, 1852 once again authorizing coinage of $10 and $20 pieces.
Humbert first struck the $10 coins, on February 16, 1852. A few days later on February 28, an article appeared in the Daily Alta California, a San Francisco newspaper which noted that coinage of $20 pieces had commenced that very day.
While confusion reigned in Washington, chaos was the order of the day in California. Moffat & Co was dissolved in December 1851, John Moffat had quit the partnership and was replaced by the other three partners. Humbert and Kellog continued on as assayer and coiner. The name was changed to United States Assay Office of Gold on February 14, 1852. Dr. Donald Kagin believes that approximately 7,500 of these $20 pieces were struck, all with 150 reeds on the edge. Augustus Humbert retained Proof specimens of the various denominations he had a hand in assaying, as did Kellogg. Humbert's coins stayed with him until his passing around 1900 when Samuel Hudson and Henry Chapman handled his numismatic estate. Some were sold privately, others auctioned in the Weeks-Humbert sale by the Chapman's in 1902. This coin first appeared at auction in the Chapman Brothers sale of the Zabriskie collection, June 1909, lot 356. At that time, it was purchased by Col. Ellsworth for $360. The coin next changed hands when John Work Garrett and Wayte Raymond purchased the Ellsworth collection in 1923. Garrett retained the coin until his collection was sold by Johns Hopkins University in 1980, when it sold for $325,000.
This is certainly one of the most historic Territorial gold coins, struck during a time of maximum chaos during the height of the Gold Rush in California. Humbert, Kellogg and others had tried to bring sanity to a region where the economy flowed with native gold, the value of which depended greatly on the authorization of the United States Assay Office of Gold to be able to refine and coin the metal. If the office hadn't been authorized, perhaps half the value of the entire gold strike would have been raked off by the gold dust buyers who could underpay the miners and merchants, then reap huge rewards for smelting and shipping the ore back east for coinage. History was being written by the whims of politicians, fortunes won and lost based on the latest volley of letters criss-crossing the country, when the outcome hung by a thread. This coin, Augustus Humbert's own proof specimen, is an imperial memento of these chaotic times.
Estimated Value $500,000-UP.
Specially struck for Augustus Humbert, held in his personal collection; sold via the Chapman Brothers to Zabriskie around 1900 from the Humbert estate; first auction appearance Zabriskie Collection in June of 1909, lot 356 at $360 to Col. Ellsworth. Ellsworth sold his collection to Wayte Raymond and John W. Garrett in 1923. This piece was next sold in the Johns Hopkins sale of the Garrett Collection by Bowers and Ruddy in March of 1980 lot 890 for $325,000. The next appearance is a private sale of this coin in 1989 for $1,300,000 as reported in Coin World September 22, 1989.
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