Q.David Bowers
On April 6, 1850, nearly 400 citizens sent a petition to the California Legislature asking for the creation of the office of state assayer, such office to refine gold dust and issue ingots with appropriate stamps indicating the fineness, weight, and value. On April 12, 1850, another petition was sent to Governor Peter Burnett requesting that Frederick D. Kohler be appointed the state assayer. Kohler, earlier a jeweler and alderman in New York City, came to California in 1849. In partnership with David C. Broderick, he operated an assaying business in San Francisco. Both Kohler and Broderick had been firemen in New York. When they reached California they became active in fire protection, with Kohler becoming the first chief engineer and Broderick attaining the post of foreman of the Empire Company. Broderick later became a prominent California politician and was elected as a senator.
It is believed that D. C. Broderick and F. D. Kohler (as Kohler & Co.) made the $5 and $10 pieces of the Pacific Co., dated 1849, among others.
The office of state assayer was created by the Legislature on April 20, 1850. The enabling legislation provided that" There shall be established in the city of San Francisco a state office for assaying, melting, and refining gold." It further noted that the governor was to appoint two competent persons to take charge and perform the duties of the establishment, one as director and the other as assayer, melter, and refiner of gold. Each official had to submit a bond in the amount of $50,000 before beginning his duties. The appointment was to be for a term of one year and until their successors were appointed and qualified. Business was to be transacted daily, except Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The director was to procure a set of standard weights to correspond with the troy weights of the United States Mint, consisting of pound weights and fractions thereof. He was to receive gold dust for bullion in quantities of at least two ounces, troy weight, offered for assay or refining.
All such gold dust or bullion shall be weighed, when practicable, in the presence of the depositor, and the director shall be responsible on his bond for the safekeeping and delivery of the same. If the dust or bullion is in such a state as to require melting before its value can be ascertained, the weight after melting shall be considered as the weight of the dust or bullion so deposited.
The director was to keep records of all bullion or dust deposited, the time it was received, the name and address of the depositor, the quantity received, and the county from which the metal originated. It was then to be delivered to the assayer who was to furnish a receipt to the director. The director was to keep a record of such receipts, one of which was to be given to each depositor with the required information on it. These were to be kept in numerical order. The state assayer was to:
. . . carefully refine and assay any or all gold dust or bullion placed in his hands by the director for that purpose, and to cause the same to be made into ingots or bars, in the form of an oblong square, and of such weight as shall be desired by the depositor. Provided, that no ingots or bars shall be made or issued of less weight than two ounces.
It was also stated that the state assayer was to keep appropriate records. Further, it was provided that:
The State Assayer shall regularly number and stamp upon the ingots or bars thus made the true value in dollars and cents, and the correct weight in carats, fineness thereof in accordance with the United States Mint standard; also the letters CAL., the date, and his own initials in plain letters over the words" State Assayer," and upon each end and side of any ingot or bar so issued, some uniform stamp or impression, and shall, as soon as thus prepared, place it in the hands of the director, taking his receipt in a book kept by the assayer for that purpose, and the director shall hand it over to the depositor, if demanded, within four days after the deposit of the dust, unless the time shall be prolonged by the depositor by a written agreement, when the weight given shall be returned to the director, who shall cancel and keep the same.
The State Assayer and director shall be entitled to charge and collect from each depositor one percent each upon the value stamped upon the ingots or bars issued, out of which they shall pay all expenses attending upon their duties as prescribed in this Act. The balance shall be equally divided between them. They shall also in addition collect and retain in their possession three-fourths of one percent upon the total amount assayed and issued by them, which sum so retained they shall at the end and expiration of every sixty days, payor cause to be paid into the State Treasury for the use of the State.
It was further stipulated that:
All ingots or bars of gold bearing the stamp of the State Assayer, as provided by this Act, shall be received in payment of all state and county dues, taxes, and assessments, at the value expressed therein in dollars and cents, provided that such ingots and bars have not been mutilated nor reduced in size, weight, or value.
It was further provided that the governor, if petitioned to do so, could establish branch offices in Sacramento, Stockton, or Sonora. The director and assayer:
... shall give additional bond of $50,000 for each branch formed under the provision of this Act, and all ingots and bars made at either branch shall be either stamped, marked, and numbered as directed, and in addition the words "Sacramento," or "Stockton," or "Sonora."
Appropriate penalties were provided for those who altered, mutilated, reduced in value or otherwise tampered with bars or counterfeited them. It was further noted that the office of state assayer would be abolished by the governor at such time as an official branch mint of the United States began operation.
It was stipulated that should there be any error in the weight, quality, or value of the gold stamped on the ingots the assayer and director would forfeit the percentage allowed to them and would be personally liable for the difference between the value stamped on the ingots and the true value at the United States Mint's standards. Any earlier provisions of the Act of April 8, 1850, which prevented the coining of money by individuals, were to be repealed if they were in conflict with the setting up of the state assay office.
When the Act was passed, Governor Burnett appointed O. P. Sutton as the director and Frederick D. Kohler as the state as sayer. Kohler sold his private assaying business to Baldwin & Co. An announcement to this effect appeared in Alta California on May 24, 1850:
The undersigned have opened an office in the building now occupied by Messrs. Baldwin & Co., south side of Ports-mouth Square, and will be prepared to receive gold dust for smelting and assaying on Monday the 13th, in accordance with the provision of the law passed by the Legislature of the State, April 20, 1850. In making this announcement we beg leave to state that desiring to establish an office at the earliest practicable moment our arrangements are necessarily less complete than they otherwise would have been; nevertheless, we trust that they will be found sufficient to meet the needs of the wants of the community.
O. P. Sutton, Director
F. D. Kohler, Assayer.