One of the challenges of historical research and writing is that it often raises interesting questions that cannot be definitively answered. I recently worked with Don Kagin on America’s Golden Age: Private & Pioneer Gold Coins of the United States 1786-1862. During my research, I encountered one of these mysteries while researching Moffat & Company.
John Little Moffat and his partners arrived in San Francisco in the middle of 1849. They began advertising their services as gold smelters, assayers, and buyers in the June 21, 1849, issue of the Weekly Alta California. When a competing firm, Miners’ Bank, began striking $10 gold pieces in August, Moffat & Co. made plans to develop its own gold coinage. The firm ran the following advertisement in the August 25, 1849, issue of the Daily Pacific News:
Messrs. MOFFAT & CO. announce to the people of California that they have constructed the requisite machinery, and secured the services of an experienced and skillful engineer from the United States Mint, and are about issuing a coinage of the denomination of five and ten dollars. [The] design [of] their coin shall be strictly and accurately in accordance with that of the United States Mint, in fineness, weight, color, value, and mechanical execution. For their integrity, and ability to accomplish their intentions, they confidently refer to their credentials below. All coin issued by them will be redeemable at their counter in silver.
Moffat’s announcement is clear about its intent to strike gold half eagles ($5) and eagles ($10); however, the ad vaguely mentions the company having “secured the services of an experienced and skillful engineer from the United States Mint.” This statement-—appearing at a time when San Francisco boasted fewer than 20,000 residents—made me wonder what former mint employee Moffat was referring to.
Joseph Farnum
The only likely candidate I could find was former Dahlonega Mint Assayer Joseph Farnum. He was the first Anglo-American assayer to arrive in California, reportedly in late 1848. Farnum was not an engineer by trade. However, his experiences in Dahlonega between his appointment in early 1837 and his departure in 1848 would likely have given him sufficient knowledge of the coining process to instruct Moffat’s employees.
Unfortunately, no amount of digging uncovered definitive proof that Farnum was Moffat’s “experienced and skillful engineer.” However, his relationship with Moffat stretched back to the latter’s time at the Dahlonega Mint. His name was the first one that Moffat put forward for the job of United States Assayer. (This role went to Augustus Humbert in late 1850.)
Farnum continued to work as an assayer in San Francisco until at least 1850. He ran advertisements that touted his skill as an “Assayer and Metallurgical Chemist, Refiner of Gold, Silver, and Platina.” These ads included a lengthy testimonial from his former boss, Director of the U.S. Mint Robert M. Patterson. He eventually secured Farnum a position in Great Britain. There, his assays were used to settle disputes among British banks surrounding U.S. and private gold coinage.
It is impossible to say whether Farnum had a role in the earliest Moffat & Co. coins. But he is the only likely contender at this point. If it is later proven that he did, in fact, help Moffat get his coinage operation off the ground, it would provide an interesting connection between two U.S. branch mints. Moffat’s private facility eventually became the United States Assay Office of Gold at San Francisco. He sold it to the U.S. government in 1853, and it became the San Francisco Mint.
A version of this article appears in the March 2024 issue of The Numismatist (money.org).