1852 U.S. Assay Office Fifty Dollar - Lead Obverse Restrike

Coin Details

Description

This is a one-sided lead restrike from the 1852 U.S. Assay Office fifty-dollar pattern obverse. Moffat & Co. dissolved early in 1852 and Curtis, Perry & Ward took over the Assay Office contract; Adams places every piece reading UNITED STATES ASSAY OFFICE OF GOLD SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA under them. They struck fifty-dollar pieces dated 1852 at 887 and then 900 THOUS., the federal standard, after the Custom House refused the lower-fineness ingots, and ten- and twenty-dollar pieces in 1852 and 1853 at 884 or 900 THOUS. The office closed on December 14, 1853, and its premises became the San Francisco Branch Mint, which began work on April 15, 1854. In 1852 Albert Kuner cut a pattern obverse for a fifty-dollar piece reading UNITED STATES ASSAY OFFICE OF GOLD SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA with 900 THOUS. and FIFTY DOLLARS, his name in small letters under the eagle. The die was later recovered from junk taken to Los Angeles, and one-sided impressions were struck from it on thin planchets (Adams). Catalogue number: K-1c.

Cross References

K-1c