Little is known about the firm established by Thomas and Hiram Norris and Charles Grieg (Gregg). The significance of the initials N.G.N. on the $5.00 pieces they issued was not clear until the sale of Augustus Humbert’s effects in 1902 when a single uncirculated specimen was found wrapped in paper identifying it as having come, “From my friends Norris, Grieg and Norris.”
It is probable that the N.G.N. coins were the first of the private issues to be made and circulated in California. The legend on the obverse CALIFORNIA GOLD WITHOUT ALLOY was only relatively true. Assays in the Philadelphia mint conducted by Eckfeldt and Dubois showed that they were manufactured from virgin gold supplied directly from the diggings. This metal contained a high natural silver content and additional alloy was not necessary. Like so many of the private mint issues the N.G..N. coins, while of reasonably full weight, were undervalued. There are two S.F. varieties, both dated 1849, one with a plain edge and the other with a reeded edge. Although they carry the name of San Francisco they were apparently struck in Benicia City.
In 1849 privately-minted gold coins made their first appearance in San Francisco. The Digger's Handbook, published at Sydney, Australia, apparently early in 1849, discussed the situation in California for its readers:
There is no coinage in the country. A Company, however, has been formed, which has imported from the United States all the material necessary for striking coins, and it is doubtless at the present time in full operation; that is, if it has succeeded in procuring coal to carry on the works, for wood is here much too dear for the purpose.
The newspaper Alta California in its May 31, 1849 issue noted the existence of:
...a five-dollar gold coin struck at Benicia City, though the imprint is San Francisco. In general appearance it resembles the United States coin of the same value, but it bears the private stamp of Norris, Gregg & Norris and is in other particulars widely different.
The firm was earlier located in the East. The New York Directory of 1849 noted that Thomas H. Norris, a civil engineer, did business at 62 Gold Street and had his home at 68 Jay Street, Brooklyn. Hiram A. Norris, whose name later appeared on the passenger manifest of a vessel bound for California in 1849, was also a civil engineer at the same business address. His house was at 310 Gold Street, Brooklyn. Charles Gregg, an engineer at the same business premises, had his house at 209 Pearl Street, Brooklyn. A New York advertisement of the period states:
Norris, Gregg & Norris. Manufacturers and dealers in raw iron pipes and fittings of all kinds for steam, water, gas, etc. No. 62 Gold St. (between Beekman and Fulton streets. New York). Mills and public buildings heated by steam. Tubular boilers of various sizes. Thomas H. Norris, Charles Gregg, Hiram A. Norris.
Gold coins of the $5 denomination were subsequently made in several varieties by the Norris, Gregg & Norris firm in California. Three of the pieces were assayed at the Philadelphia Mint and showed finenesses of .870, .880, and .892, and respective intrinsic gold values of $4.83, $4.89 and $4.95, not including the silver alloy (which if added would have given them each about 2 1/2 cents extra value).
Examples of the coinage with the imprint of San Francisco were made in large quantities and circulated extensively.
The firm of Norris, Gregg & Norris is believed to have been the first quantity issuer of gold coins in California. Albert Kuner, who arrived in San Francisco on July 16, 1849, stated that he made at least one pair of dies for Norris, Gregg & Norris. As the initial coinage with the San Francisco imprint had already appeared, it is possible that Kuner produced dies for a variety which was made only in pattern form and never reached circulation, or perhaps the variety was one which is not known to exist today.
