A 1851 United States Assay Office $50 Gold "Slug" (Humbert Gold) or ingots will be offered by Spink USA along with a number of other U.S. rare gold rarities will cross the block in New York on June 18 when Spink auctions the "Forest Park Collection". Formed largely in Philadelphia in the 1950's and 1960's, the collection features a wonderful selection of U.S. coins, medals, tokens, and paper money along with a select group of ancient and world coins.
The Augustus Humbert U.S. Assay Office $50 Gold piece (lot 2499) is graded NGC MS 61 and estimated at $150,000-200,000. In March of 2014 a PCGS MS60 realized $282,000 in a Heritage sale.
A little bit history about United States Assay Office $50 Gold "Slug" by Spink:
"On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. Over 300,000 people migrated to California and many of them converged on San Francisco creating an economic boom of major proportions. This boom created an economic problem of major proportions, eventually bringing about the minting of these legendary "Californians," "quintuple eagles," "five eagle pieces," or "slugs" - the $50 pieces produced by Augustus Humbert, United States Assayer of Gold in 1851.
The economic problem arose from the simple fact that there was no United States mint in California. There was no way for miners, prospectors or merchants to convert their gold into coins, and this made it extremely difficult to conduct simple business transactions. Petitions sprang up urging the state to set up a government assay office, but this suggestion was opposed by bankers, gold dust dealers and merchants who were making a good living buying or accepting gold in trade at a large discount.
The solution to the problem was the establishment of a United States Mint in San Francisco, but that would take an act of Congress. Opposition came from the states that already had United States Mints - Penssylvania, North Carolina, Louisiana and Georgia. A compromise was reached, and an act was passed in 1850, establishing a Federal Assay Office. The act authored "ingots" of $50 " to be struck, consisting of refined gold "….of uniform fineness…." Legends were to include the words "LIBERTY" and "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA." These "ingots" would circulate like Federal coins, but their metallurgic composition differed from the gold coins that were issued by the official U. S. Mints. Copper, nitric acid, sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acids were necessary in order to create the proper metallic content, and these raw materials were not available on the West Coast.
Technically, the United States Assay Office was not a U. S. Mint, but the officials at the Philadelphia Mint treated Humbert as if he were a branch-mint supervisor. The production of the master dies and hubs for the "ingots" was carried out under the direct supervision of Mint officials. The "ingots" circulated side by side with U.S. and foreign gold coins, and they were acceptable for the payment of Customs duties."
1852 U.S. Assay Office $10 piece (lot 2500), graded NGC MS 61, estimated at 12,000-16,000
1853 U.S. Assay Office $20 (lot 2501), graded NGC AU 58, estimated at 10,000-15,000
For catalogues or further information, please contact Spink New York at 212-262-8400 or visit their website www.spink.com.
