Unique, $3 Million Gold Rush Coin Returns "Home" to Baltimore
www.news-antique.com
Tuesday, July 8, 2008

A one-of-a-kind California Gold Rush coin will return to Baltimore for the first time since it was sold by The John Hopkins University more than a quarter century ago.   The unique, 1854-dated $20 denomination gold piece known as the "Kellogg Twenty" was in the legendary coin collection of diplomat, John Work Garrett, which was bequeathed to the school along with the famous Evergreen House when he died in 1942.

Insured for $3 million, the historic coin will be displayed during the first four days of the American Numismatic Association World's Fair of Money® convention in the Baltimore Convention Center, July 30 - August 3, 2008.   The event is free and open to the public.

"This is one of the first California Gold Rush-era coins minted in San Francisco, made by a well-known assayer, John Glover Kellogg, from gold found in the area at the time. When you pick up this coin, you're literally holding Gold Rush history in your hands," said Steven L. Contursi, President of Rare Coin Wholesalers of Dana Point, California, the coin's owner who is bringing it to Baltimore for an educational exhibit.

"This is a homecoming.   It's the first time it will be publicly seen in Baltimore in 28 years."

The Kellogg Twenty was sold by The Johns Hopkins University for $230,000 in a 1980 auction, and subsequently changed hands several times since then.   Contursi has owned it twice; from 2002 to 2005, and now since 2006.   He has underwritten educational displays of the Gold Rush-era coin in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

The Honorable John Work Garrett (1872 - 1942), an American diplomat and ambassador, was the grandson of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad executive and one-time president, John Work Garrett (1820 - 1884), and the eldest son of T. Harrison Garrett (1849 - 1888), who began collecting coins as a student at Princeton.   The coin collection grew extensively under T. Harrison's sons, John and Robert (1875 - 1961).

"Ambassador Garrett acquired this famous gold piece in 1923, and it was included in the family's fabled coin collection kept at Evergreen House mansion that was given to The Johns Hopkins University upon his death in 1942," explained Contursi.

"Kellogg was a native of Onondaga County, New York and a former employee of the San Francisco U.S. Assay Office who set up his own assay company during the booming days of the California Gold Rush.   He specially made this coin on February 9, 1854 and gave it to his friend and future business partner, New York City watchmaker, Augustus Humbert, the former U.S. Assayer in San Francisco."

Kellogg's name prominently appears on the front of the coin on the headdress worn by the symbolic "Miss Liberty."   The tail's side carries the wording, "SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA TWENTY D."

"The renowned names of Kellogg and Humbert are an integral part of California’s Gold Rush history.   Only a few 1854-dated Kellogg $20 gold pieces survive today, and this is one is unique; the only one designated a 'specimen strike' because of its exceptionally strong design features," said Contursi.

"It's the finest known U.S. territorial gold coin.   It's in pristine condition, meticulously struck and then carefully preserved by Garrett and other collectors for 154 years," said David Hall, Founder of Professional Coin Grading Service in Santa Ana, California, an independent rare coin authentication company and a division of Collectors Universe, Inc. ( NASDAQ: CLCT).

Their team of authentication experts designed it as the only known Kellogg $20 "specimen strike" and graded the coin as 69 out of a possible top grade of 70.

The historic gold coin will be displayed by Contursi in a specially-constructed, five-foot tall wooden exhibit case that symbolically resembles the mid-19th century cabinets that housed the United States Mint’s coin collection.

The 48-room Evergreen House at 4545 N. Charles St. is now known as Evergreen Museum & Library, and operated by The Johns Hopkins University.   A Gilded Age mansion, it was built in the 1850's and purchased in 1878 by John Work Garrett, president of the B&O Railroad for his son, T. Harrison Garrett and his young family. The art-rich, multi-layered museum is open Tuesday through Friday with the first tour at 11:00 a.m. and the last at 3:00 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday with the first tour at Noon and the last at 3:00 p.m.   For more information, call (410) 516-0341, or visit online at www.museums.jhu.edu.

The free World's Fair of Money will be held at the Baltimore Convention Center, Hall A (Charles Street Lobby) One West Pratt St., Baltimore, Maryland.   The California Gold Rush coin will be displayed to the public at booth #232 Wednesday through Friday, July 30 - August 1, 2008, from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and on Saturday, August 2, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.   Additional information is available online at www.money.org