1071234 | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 1854 AV $20, Double Eagle. NGC AU58. By Kuner (dies). Kellogg & Co. Edge: Reeded. Coronet head, left, within circle of thirteen stars; date below / SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA. TWENTY D. below eagle, no motto above eagle.


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John Glover Kellogg, a banker from New York, became associated with G. F. Richter who had been an assayer in the government assay office in San Francisco. The two worked as cashier and assayer of Curtis, Perry and Ward until the firm ceased operations and the pair went on to found their own enterprise, Kellogg & Co. on December 19, 1853.

When financial institutions in San Francisco and Sacramento began noting the effects of a coin shortage, they urgently requested Kellogg & Richter to supply private coins until the forthcoming U.S. branch mint went into operation. With the support of Curtis, Perry and Ward and that of Moffat & Co., within a matter of two weeks later, on January 31, Kellogg & Richter announced they would commence operations to supply coinage and stem the shortages. The firm began issuing its private gold coins on February 9, 1854. These were $20 pieces which Kellogg claimed his firm could issue at the rate of $20,000 worth per day. The dies for these $20 coins also closely resembled Twenty Dollar gold pieces being issued by the U.S. Mint.

When the new U.S. branch mint finally opened on April 3, 1854, constant supply shortages caused them to stop production several times. As a result, the coining business of Kellogg & Richter quickly assumed rather large proportions reporting some $6 million of the $20 pieces being issued. Under the circumstances the bankers and local economy almost universally accepted these new coins being introduced. By late 1854 Kellogg & Co dissolved and reorganized as Kellogg & Humbert, who in 1855 went on to produce Twenty Dollar pieces in even greater quantities than before.