The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-25
RARE GOLD PIECES
 FROM CALIFORNIA Coins Originally Worth $50
 Now Very Valuable ONCE AT A DISCOUNT One Has Premium of s15oo-curious Shapes and Legends Borne by
 Strange Money-First $50
 Slug Struck in 1851.
ONCE AT A DISCOUNT
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
 Extraordinary as the ever-increasing premiums on the fifty-dollar gold pieces of the early days of California may seem to the average person nowadays, they must be simply amazing to the Forty miners who can recall when the chunks of gold were a drug on the market and the possessor of one was forced to sub init to a discount of or per cent in order to get it changed.
 The fifty dollar gold piece, slug, ingot, or quintuple eagle, as it was variously designated, came into existence early in 1851 Efforts on the part of Californians to have branch mint established in San Francisco resulted in a temporary com promise which provided for the operation of an assay office in that city, to which miners and others could take their gold dust and at a nominal cost have 1t smelt- ed refined and struck into ingots of the value of $50 each. The ingots were to bear the stamp of the United States assay of- flee, and the assayer in charge was ap- pointed by the United States govern ment.
 Great numbers of the coins were struck fully S2,000000 of gold being coined in the first nine months after the beginning of the operation of the assay office Before
 
 count, smaller and more useful denomina- tions going to a premium
 Status of Coins.
 There has been much discussion of the status of these coins. Some have main tained that they were regular United States coins, being stamped by a United States assayer. For a time they were thought to be legal tender, and the col lector of the port at San Francisco was A-tuN A1 duties, but later he was instructed that they were not so receivable, as they did not comply with the law which provided that only coins of the standard f1neness of the United States pieces should be re- ceived.
 The metal of the regular coins is 300 fine, while the gold in the California slugs was of three degrees of fineness- .SS0 .SS1 and 1887, the differences being made up in the weight. The difference in fneness was due to the silver contained in the California gold, facilities to ex- l tract which were lacking at the time.
 The first fifty-dollar slug was struck on February 20, 1851. It was octagonal and weighed two and three-quarter ounces. Eagle in Center. 1 In the center of the obverse was a large eagle with expanded wings, in its l beak holding a ribbon upon which was | eagle, on label was stamped the fine ness, 1887 Thous, and around the edge ran the inscription, United States of America" Below was the denomination, "50 D. C."
 1 On the reverse was a mass of engine turning in the center of which were the 1 figures "50." At the edge was stamped figures "5O" At the edge was stamped Augustus Humbert"
 This Is the rarest of the several vare- l ties of the quintuple eagle struck by Humbert, and fine specimen is valued at from $200 upward. Another variety i was exactly like it, but the fineness stamped on the label was 'SS0'' instead l of ".SS7." It is of equal rarity. l The third variety of the Augustus Hum bert fifty dollar gold pieces bore the fine ness of .SS0, but the figures '50'' were l omitted from the reverse, in their places being a small target design. A very fine specimen of this variety brought s170 last year at the Stickney sale.
 The fourth variety is of the fineness of .SS7, with the edge milled. Around the edge of the obverse Is inscribed Angus l tus Humbert, United States Asssayer of Gold, California; 1s51" A fairly fine spec- imen of this variety recently sold for $40 The fifth and last variety struck in 1851 l shows a similar design, but bears the ] mark of fineness of .8S0 above the eagle. | This piece is about as valuable as the last mentioned.
 | In 1852 the same design was continued but the label above the eagle read "Ss7 1 Thous." All the coins were struck at the assay office of Moffatt & Co.,, United States assay contractors, and they were | the real makers of the coin, Humbert only afflxing the stamp.
 Worth Face Value. l While the coin was frequently at a dis count, owing to the scarcity of change, it was nevertheless worth it's face value, and even more. Counting the silver as well as the gold. the average mint value of the metal was about s50.10; without the silver the average value of the coin was i about $49.90.
 About the middle of February. 1852 the l United States contract for smelting and assaying gold was transferred from Moi | fatt & Co. to Curtis, Perry & Ward, who l produced two varieties of fifty dollar gold l pieces of slightly different design, as well | as ten-dolar and twenty-dollar gold pieces.
 The first of the slugs issued by this firm bore the usual eagle on the obverse, but the inscription read, United States | of America Fifty Doll" Outside of a beaded circle was United States Assay OThce of Gold San Fracnisco, Cal, 1852" The reverse was engine turned with the C 0f target design.
 1 A second variety is the rarer of the 1 {, yut the only difference lies in the | label above the eagle, which reads 1900 | Thous.." the same fineness as the regular United States coins. It is said that less l than a dozen specimens of this variety l are known, and an extremely fine piece