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

Here is a dramatic restrike of the original $50 1855 Proof Kellogg slug--of which there are only about 14 known today in the 21st century. The Restrike offered by AUCM was produced from gold ingots recovered from the wreck of the S.S. Central America, which sat upon the ocean's floor for over 130 years. The restrikes 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 it to the new branch mint. However, no private mints were striking coins at that time, even though banks and businesses had a real need for a steady 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 began striking his famous $20 gold double eagles.

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.