1852 (2009) $50 California Gold Quintuple Eagle - Humbert Commemorative 2.5oz NGC Gem Proof Ultra Cameo

Here’s something out of the ordinary for the collector. In the year 1851 Augustus Humbert was appointed to the job of United States Assayer in California. 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 both 1851 and 1852 Humbert minted $50 gold slugs that were accepted at par with legal tender Federal-issued coinage. This piece offered by AUCM is a replica of that $50 gold slug, struck with 2.5 oz. of 999.9 thousandths pure California gold. It was produced in 2009 and now is housed in an NGC holder and designated ‘Gem Proof Ultra Cameo.’

Miners during the California Gold Rush. This commemorative replica was struck with California gold.

A report from 1911, published in the American Journal of Numismatics, discusses the rarity of the original $50 slugs 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.