1849 $5 California Gold Half Eagle - Norris, Gregg & Norris, Reeded Edge K-3 NGC AU55

If you want to hold the California Gold Rush in your hands, this coin may be the closest you will get. Norris, Gregg & Norris crafted their coins in 1849 of gold fresh from the gold fields and mines of California. NGC has graded 4 as AU55 with only 25 finer.

Mining for gold in California during the Gold Rush. Photo: wikipedia.

The firm of Norris, Gregg & Norris began in Brooklyn, New York, as an enterprise that specialized in the manufacture of metal pipes, fittings, boilers, and other equipment employed in plumbing and steam-heating of public buildings. However, they relocated to the San Francisco area in 1849, after the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848. Shortly after arriving in California, the concern began producing private gold coinage, beginning in 1849.

A brief article in a local newspaper documents that Norris, Gregg & Norris were the first private coiners in the region. The firm minted large numbers of $5 gold pieces in 1849, with assays at the Philadelphia mint informing us that these coins were struck with no alloy compound. Thus the intrinsic value of the Norris, Gregg & Norris coins were quite close to their face value and were therefore well-received by the public. Despite their importance in Gold Rush California, much numismatic history of the period was neglected until the publication of a book by Edgar Adams on the subject in 1913. He writes, "The significance of the initial 'N.G.& N.' is said not to have been understood until the sale of the coins of Augustus Humbert in 1902. Among his effects was found a perfectly Uncirculated gold piece of this variety, wrapped in a sheet of paper bearing the words, 'From my friends, Norris, Gregg & Norris.' "