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50 Dollars - United States Assay Office
| Issuer | United States Assay Office of Gold, San Francisco |
|---|---|
| Year | 1852 |
| Type | Emergency coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Mintage | 1852 |
| Additional information |
The U.S. Assay Office in San Francisco was established in 1851 specifically to process the overwhelming volume of gold flowing out of the Sierra Nevada foothills — the federal mint in Philadelphia was simply too far and too slow for California's needs. These fifty-dollar slugs, as they were known in the trade, were octagonal ingot-coins intended to move large sums efficiently, not to satisfy any numismatic ambition.
Kagin 14 specimens frequently show adjustment marks from the assay process itself, where excess gold was filed down to meet the stated weight before striking.