U.S. Coins

A Golden Collection, Part 1

Published September 9, 2025 | Read time 4 min read

By David McCarthy

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On Monday, September 30, 1850, it was announced that President Millard Fillmore had appointed Augustus Humbert to serve as assayer of the mint at San Francisco. This announcement was slightly misleading, as Congress had scrapped its plans to establish a mint in California by September 1850. Instead, it chose to create an assay office, empowered only to assay gold and form it into ingots stamped with their intrinsic value. Unlike the coins struck by the U.S. Mint, these ingots would not be considered legal tender. Despite their status, these ingots—now called Humbert slugs by collectors—have become symbols of the California Gold Rush and made Humbert one of the most recognizable names in 19th-century U.S. numismatics.

Augustus Humbert’s Collection

Although his slugs and the later $10 and $20 gold coins that bear his name are familiar to many of us, most numismatists are unaware that Augustus Humbert assembled a collection of coins, a number of which are identifiable today.

The auction house of S.H. & H. Chapman sold some of Humbert’s collection on May 2, 1902. The auction’s preface reads:

The collection of the late Augustus Humbert, while not extensive, naturally contains many of the pioneer gold coins struck in California, etc., of some of which he was the assayer and issuer[…] the greatest interest centers in the superb, unequalled coins of California, the Mormons, etc. We believe it to be the first time that the Moffat $16 bar and the Kellogg & Co. $50 have ever been under public competition, and they should command great attention. The other pioneer gold coins in his collection contain examples in a superb state of preservation, surpassing those previously offered.

Humbert’s holdings included 15 California pioneer gold coins, including issues from Moffat & Company, Norris Gregg Norris, the U.S. Assay Office, Kellogg & Company, and Wass Molitor & Company; 16 lots of California fractional gold; 8 lots of California gold dust and nuggets; an Oregon Exchange $5; a trio of Mormon gold coins; and a single Bechtler $5. 

Andrew C. Zabriskie’s Collection

Then, on June 3, 1909, Henry Chapman held an auction of the coin collection belonging to Andrew C. Zabriskie, a wealthy New York real estate magnate who was also the president of the American Numismatic Society from 1896 to 1904. The preface of this sale, like the Humbert sale seven years earlier, contained some interesting information:

Capt. Zabriskie some years ago had the good fortune to purchase from his executors the collection of coins left by Mr. Humbert, the California Assayer, and from which collection he derived many of the most remarkable of his Pioneer Gold Coins, which, added to his collection that had been forming for many years, makes his Pioneer Gold the best ever offered at public sale, containing some of the greatest rarities, as well as many but seldom obtainable. Note the Cincinnati Mining & Trading Co., $10; J. S. Ormsby, $10; Kellogg & Co., 1855 $50, round; Wass, Molitor & Co., $50, round; Moffat $16 ingot; Oregon $10; Bechtler $5; with assayer; Pelican $ 2 1/2; Bowie $1; superb $50s; Mormon Coins, complete set; Clark, Gruber & Co., $20; 1860 Pikes Peak, etc., etc.

Based on this, it can be deduced that Humbert’s collection—as it was initially purchased by Andrew Zabriskie—was larger and more comprehensive than the 1902 Chapman Brothers catalog indicated. In his lot descriptions, Chapman identified nine of Zabriskie’s pioneer gold coins as having belonged to Augustus Humbert; however, it is not clear whether these were the only pieces that originated from Humbert, or if other material also came from his holdings.

Although Zabriskie had been a collector for decades prior to his acquisition of Humbert’s coins, his primary areas of interest were colonial coinage and Lincoln coins and medals. A close review of Chapman’s lot descriptions for Zabriskie’s pioneer gold coins shows several gold coins pedigreed to the 1907 Matthew Stickney sale. Yet, only one gold coin (a rare 1849 $10 Cincinnati) had provenance from a 19th-century sale, which suggests that more of Zabriskie’s coins may have originated from Humbert’s estate.

Next month: A comparison of the coins in both sales suggests that the Humbert Collection contained duplicates.


A version of this article appears in the September 2025 issue of The Numismatist (money.org)