Gold Rush Coins - USA of Course

[scottishmoney]

A neat and affordable acquisition from the first year of the San Francisco mint in California USA. Until the SF mint was opened in the old offices of Moffett & Company, most gold was sold to and minted by private minters into coinage, some good and some not so good. The opening of the mint that year was one rare time when good money being of full weight and fineness actually drove out the bad money of the private firms minting coinage.

Much of this coinage circulated in California of course, but quite a bit of it was shipped east down through to across Panama, and then on up to New York via steamship.

Uncharacteristic for later pieces which had even microscopic mintmarks, this piece has a large S below the eagle on the reverse.

Small change was in short supply in the west, it almost was never shipped from the east, and never by overland of course because of the distance and length of the journey. Small token coins were manufactured by private minters beginning in ca. 1850 with denominations ranging from 1/4 Dollar - $1 Dollar coins. They were very similar to the piece above, but this particular piece is actually a counterfeit struck during the 1890's and backdated to give it legal status - but it was indeed created in fine gold, but was not made to circulate but become a part of jewelry. These little coins were a novelty item into the 1920's when they were no longer made in gold, but became base metal pieces which were then plated and sold to tourists etc. This piece is known to have been struck by the firm of Herman Kroll, a jeweler in New York in the late 19th century.

[Hussulo]

Nice coins and info scottishmoney.

I once bought a "California" fractional gold coin. Won it for very little on ebay. I belive it was a restrike/replica and probably gold plated. The obverse had an indian head the reverse 1/2 dollar but had a bear below. I since read somewhere that the coins with bears are restrikes? shed anymore light on this matter?

[scottishmoney]

Nice coins and info scottishmoney.

I once bought a "California" fractional gold coin. Won it for very little on ebay. I belive it was a restrike/replica and probably gold plated. The obverse had an indian head the reverse 1/2 dollar but had a bear below. I since read somewhere that the coins with bears are restrikes? shed anymore light on this matter?

The coins with bears are ca. 1950's and 1960's tourist trap souvenirs. They seemingly made enough of these that they lasted in said tourist traps until well into the 1980's. They could be purchased for anywhere from $1.00 on up to ridiculous sums like $50 etc. They sold well in Gold Rush region tourist trap towns like Coloma, Sutter Creek etc.