1855 $50 Kellogg California Gold - Commemorative Restrike PCGS Gem Proof Ex.SS Central America

Here is a stunning restrike from the original $50 1855 Proof Kellogg slug--of which there are only about 14 known. The Restrikes were crafted from gold ingots recovered from the S.S. Central America upon the ocean's floor. They were produced by the California Historical Society in San Francisco.

The U.S. Assay Office in San Francisco had closed its doors in order to transition to the new branch mint. However, no private mints were striking coins at that time, and banks and business firms desperately needed a regular supply of gold coinage. Due to the dire situation, John G. Kellogg and G.F. Richter, cashier and assayer of Curtis, Perry and Ward, were called upon by California bankers to open their own assaying office and mint. Kellogg opened his firm on December 14, 1853. He then began striking his famous $20 gold double eagles.

"San Francisco." Engraving illustrated by Charles A. Dana (New York, 1855).

The Kellogg fifty dollar slug in all probability owes its existence to its potential as an advertisement, rather than to any commercial requirement for such a coin. By late 1854, Kellogg had ended his affiliation with Richter and had taken on a new partner, Augustus Humbert.  It was Humbert who had popularized the dramatic eagle design used on the back of the Kellogg Fifty Dollar slug when he was a principle at the US Assay Office of Gold. Ferdinand Gruner was the engraver of the slug. The Wass, Molitor & Co. firm was Kellogg's main competition in the private coinage industry, and they were renowned for their oversized $50 slugs. Kellogg unquestionably produced his artistically superior slug to show his firm's ability to keep pace with the competition at all levels of the private coinage trade.