1852 Humbert $10 SSCA (SS Central America) PCGS XF45. The fields of this historic 1852 Humbert $10.00 ingot have a matt-like texture show some abrasions, and there is wear on the high points of the design, the eagles breast, shield, and wing tips. While the strike is weak on the upper left of the obverse and the center of the reverse, all of the legends are readable. Augustus Humbert and Charles Wright designed ingots for use in California in response to the need to standardize the process of changing ore and gold dust into coin. Because of opposition from other states that had mints, the law established an assay office, and Humbert was appointed Assayer.

From 1851 to 1853 he created slugs in fifty, twenty, and ten dollar denominations. The slugs circulated as money and were often called Californians. With their issuance, the money changers and local bankers who were buying gold dust for six to eight dollars per ounce and smelting and reselling it at sixteen to eighteen dollars per ounce were opposed to the Assay Office. The office closed in 1853 and regular federal coinage began in 1854 at the Mint in San Francisco, which replaced it.

The present piece has the added interest of having been recovered from the S.S. Central America shipwreck. Originally called the S.S. George Law, the Central America was a United States mail steamship. In 1857 it sank off the coast of the Carolinas because of a huge hurricane. On board were 578 passengers and crew, and over 35,000 pieces of mail. Also on board were tons of gold from the West.

In 1985, the Columbus-America Discovery Group raised ten million dollars and began to search for the wreck. They found it at a depth of 8,500 feet off the coast of South Carolina. It is estimated that the total coin, ingots, and gold bars were worth more than one hundred million dollars.
The PCGS population report for this date shows 119 $10.00 pieces in all grades.