50 Dollars, Kellogg & Co., United States, 1855

Object Details

mint

Kellogg and Company

Description

As early as 1850, agitation began in Congress for the establishment of a San Francisco branch of the United States Mint. This action was blocked by people from New York-who wanted a branch in their own state-and from Louisiana and Georgia-who argued that any California operation would represent unfair competition to the branch mints in New Orleans and Dahlonega.

The opposition won, and San Francisco went without a branch mint for another four years. But it did get an odd sort of hybrid, the United States Assay Office of Gold, striking an odd sort of money-a gigantic-fifty-dollar ingot that also did duty as a coin.

In addition to the Assay Office, other California coiners toyed with the idea of striking fifty-dollar gold pieces. One group, headed by J. G. Kellogg and G. F. Richter went so far as to have dies for circular slugs prepared and a dozen or so proofs struck from those dies.

But by the time the project had gone forward that far, the federal branch Mint at San Francisco was finally coming into full production. Soon California private gold coinage, no matter how large or small the denominations, became irrelevant.

Location

Currently not on view

Credit Line

Willis H. duPont

1855

ID Number

NU.78.73.1

accession number

1978.2507

catalog number

78.73.1

Object Name

coin

Physical Description

gold (overall metal)

0 (overall die axis)

0 (overall die axis measurement)

struck (overall production method)

Measurements

overall: 41.5 mm; 1 5/8 in

place of issue

United States: California

Related Publication

Zoomable Image and Details

Glossary of Coins and Currency Terms

Related Web Publication

http://americanhistory.si.edu/coins/glossary.cfm

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Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection

Coins

Numismatics

Coins, Currency and Medals

Legendary Coins

National Museum of American History

Record ID

nmah_1101711

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b3-05ad-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa