Re: Piece of Gold Rush back in town -- Coin made in 1854, once owned by Hopkins, to appear in show


"Arizona Coin Collector" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:EuidnV_SEIDd4_rVnZ2dnUVZ_sLinZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
FROM:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-md.coin29jun29,0,4384329.story

Piece of Gold Rush back in town

Coin made in 1854, once owned by Hopkins, to appear in show

By Andrew Kipkemboi
Sun Reporter
June 29, 2008

A one-of-a-kind California Gold Rush coin, preserved for
years by one of Baltimore's most prominent families, will
return here next month for the first time in nearly 30 years.

The 154-year-old $20 gold piece known as the Kellogg
Twenty - now worth $3 million - will be displayed during
the American Numismatic Association World's Fair of Money
in the Baltimore Convention Center from July 30 to
Aug. 2. Once owned by Baltimore resident and diplomat
John Work Garrett, the coin is considered by collectors
to be one of the finest American coins from the mid-19th
century.

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

Garrett, the descendant of a one-time Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad president, donated the coin, along with his home,
Evergreen House, to the Johns Hopkins University upon his
death in 1942. Hopkins sold the coin at auction in 1980
for $230,000, and it has changed hands several times
since then.

The coin was made Feb. 9, 1854, by John Glover Kellogg, a
New York native who worked as an assayer - someone who
tests minerals to determine their composition - during
the California Gold Rush. According to Contursi, only a
few Kellogg $20 pieces survive, and none is in such good
condition as the one Garrett once owned.

"There are few pre-1964 coins graded this high, and for
that the coin is exceptional," said Douglas Mudd, curator
of American Numismatic Association's Money Museum.
"Somebody took care of it from the moment it was struck."

Contursi said he will display the coin in a specially
constructed, 5-foot-tall wooden exhibit case designed to
resemble the 19th-century cabinets that housed the United
States Mint's coin collection. The coin will be displayed
from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. July 30 through Aug. 1, and
from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 2. The event is free and open
to the public.

It's odd that the article talks about how it is the highest grade example,
but doesn't say what that grade is. Or did I just not read carefully
enough?

James


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