Contursi to display Kellogg $20 at Baltimore ANAA 154-year-old $20 gold piece known as the Kellogg Twenty will return to Baltimore next month for the first time in nearly 30 years.
This one-of-a-kind California Gold Rush coin was once owned by Baltimore resident and diplomat John Work Garrett, and is considered by most collectors to be one of the finest American coins from the mid-19th century.
John W. Garrett (1872 - 1942) 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).
Garrett donated the coin, along with his home, Evergreen House, to the Johns Hopkins University on his death in 1942. Hopkins sold the coin at the Bowers and Ruddy auction in 1980 for $230,000.
Subsequently the coin changed hands several times. Contursi has owned it twice; from 2002 to 2005, and since 2006, it is now valued at $3 million. The coin is graded Specimen-69 by Professional Coin Grading Service
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"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."
The coin was manufactured on February 9, 1854 by John Glover Kellogg, a former employee of the San Francisco U.S. Assay Office. He gave it to his friend and future business partner, New York City watchmaker, August Humbert, the former U.S. Assayer in San Francisco.
During most of the 20th century, the historic coin was part of the legendary Garrett Collection at Johns Hopkins University and kept in a vault in Baltimore, Maryland.
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Posted 07/13/2008 1:19 pm
