Mount Ophir, California

Mount Ophir during the early 1850s was a large camp, and stores and tents straggled along the main road for quite a distance.

In 1854, Louis Trabucco purchased the stone-walled trading post in Mount Ophir, which was patronized by miners and packers.

The gold stamping mill was built in 1850-51 by Moffat and Company, operating under the authority of Augustus Humbert, who had been appointed by President John Tyler to be the federal assayer for the new state of California.

The Mount Ophir Mint produced Octagonal Gold Slugs with a fifty-dollar denomination.

On February 14, 1851 the newspaper, the San Francisco Prices Current, indicated that the production of $50 slugs was about to begin: The above cut represents the obverse of the United States ingot, or, rather, coin, of the value of $50, about to be issued at the Government Assay Office.