1852 United States Assay Office of Gold $50. K-14. Rarity-5+. 900 THOUS. AU-55 (NGC).
The counterpart to the 887 THOUS. $50 gold pieces offered above, this 900 THOUS. example offers delicate champagne-pink highlights to dominant khaki-gold color. Ample evidence of a frosty finish remains, the surfaces boldly defined overall and uncommonly smooth for both the type and the assigned grade. Even the edge is free of all but a few minor disturbances that are hardly distracting in hand. Sure to please the discerning collector of California Gold Rush coinage. Legislation passed in August 1852, suddenly forbade the Customs Office from accepting any gold coin not struck at the federally mandated .900 purity. This was a death blow to the United States Assay Office of Gold's 887 THOUS. "slugs" produced earlier that year. The Kagin-14 $50 pieces, as offered here, were the outcome of that crisis. Petitioned by the local merchants to alleviate the situation, the Assay Office began to produce prodigious quantities of the $50 slugs at the federal standard in January and February 1853, including some 23,800 pieces in total, all bearing an 1852 date. Their popularity undiminished, the pieces continued to be used in commerce until finally the state's petitions for a branch mint were heard and the San Francisco Mint began operations. Once the mint was up and running, thousands of the venerable Assay Office $50 pieces ended up in their melting pots to be made into officially sanctioned coins. Survivors are scarce to rare in all grades, and few circulated ones are as visually impressive as the offered coin.
PCGS# 10019. NGC ID: ANHG.
From the Madrone Collection.