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1852 $50 California Gold - Augustus Humbert 887 Thous. RE NGC AU55

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SKU
4033528005

It is with pleasure that we at AUCM offer to the numismatic community a rarity from the heady days of the California Gold Rush: an 1852 $50 California Gold Quintuple Eagle, Augustus Humbert 877 Thous., graded NGC AU55. It was in 1852 that the United States Assay Office of Gold in San Francisco struck two major types of $50 slugs — one marked '900 THOUS' and another '887 THOUS' (referring to the fineness of the gold). There have been only 46 in total graded by NGC, including both the '900 THOUS.' and the '877 THOUS.' Of those, just 5 were graded AU55, with 11 finer. This example has attractive greenish-gold coloration.

 

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The year 1851 saw Augustus Humbert appointed to the job of United States Assayer in California, and that same year he created a provisional government mint, the United States Assay Office of Gold, in order to fulfill the monetary needs of the people of the new state of California. In 1851 and 1852 Humbert minted $50 gold slugs that were accepted at par with legal tender Federal-issued coinage.

A report from 1911, published in the American Journal of Numismatics, discusses their rarity even then:

"The comparative scarcity of the fifty-dollar slugs at the present time, notwithstanding the enormous number originally struck, may be ascribed to the fact that as the ungainly pieces were worth much above their face value, a considerable profit was derived from remelting them. Foreign bankers, it is said, preferred the octagonal ingots to regular American coin, and they were exported in huge quantities, some direct from California, others from New York City. An item appeared in one of the papers on Jan. 13, 1853, to the effect that the steamer Asia, from New York to Liverpool, took $200,000 in fifty-dollar gold pieces."

More Information
PCGS # 10217
Grading Service NONE
Year of Issue NONE
Grade NONE
Denom Type N/A
Numeric Denomination $50
Mint Location NONE
Designation NONE
Circ/UnCirc Not Specified
Strike Type N/A
Holder Variety 1852 Humbert Reeded Edge 887 Thous.
Grade Add On NONE
Holder Type N/A

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