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Sale 62
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Lot 2396
1853 $20 United States Assay Office of Gold San Francisco. ANACS graded Details of AU-50 Net EF40. 884 Thous. Damaged. Well struck with residual luster around the legends and within devices. It is never common to find a Territorial coin struck with exactitude by the dies. This is such a coin.
According to the Dr. Donald Kagin reference on this private California gold rush issue, "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)."
Some have argued the Assay Office was a branch mint of the United States. There is considerable support for the belief that the U. S. Assay Office should be regarded as a provisional branch United States mint. The Act of September 30, 1850, provided for the establishment of an assay office under the supervision of the United States assayer, "Who shall cause the stamp of the United States. to be affixed to each bar or ingot of gold." The assayer was directly responsible to the Secretary of the Treasury, an even higher authority than the Director of the Mint to whom the Superintendents of the Philadelphia, Dahlonega, and Charlotte mints were responsible.
In addition, Humbert used the same form for his monthly reports to the mint director in Philadelphia as did the other branch mint superintendents; these are preserved at the National Archives. In effect, the United States Assay Office seems to qualify at least as a Provisional Mint of the United States Government as it operated in many ways as the four United States Mints did.
Estimated Value $4,000 - 4,500.
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| Realized $9,775 |
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