California Gold Coins and Tokens

Learn about the history of California Fractional Gold.There is a great deal of mis-information circulating about small
California gold coins and tokens. This guide provides facts which
have been assembled from over 10 years of mostly original research into
the topic. Large denomination private issue gold coins ($2.50 and greater) are not the subject of this guide.Joseph Brothers of San Francisco began making
California Gold half dollars in 1852. It was legal for a private
manufacturer to make such pieces at the time, and production of gold
quarter dollars and dollars soon followed. These tiny substitutes
for a pinch of gold during a small coin shortage never became popular
for use as money. However, by late 1853 they had begee popular
for use as souvenirs that gold miners could economically mail to their
families. The coins were quickly altered to reduce the gold
content from about 80% of full value down to about 60% of full value,
and even lower in later years. Production of these souvenirs has
never stopped and continues today.The early issues have a
denomination that includes the word DOLLAR or CENTS or an abbreviation
thereof. Congress passed laws in 1864 that made it illegal to
privately manufacture tokens that could be confused with US mint
issues. The secret service (the president's police force) is
responsible for the enforcement of coinage laws because the president
is in charge of the mint. From 1871-1883, the secret service
ruled that most of the souvenir California gold coins could be confused
with a federal gold dollar and progressively suppressed the production
of the pieces during this period. Manufacturers first responded
by removing DOLLAR from the legends, but that was apparently not
sufficient for the secret service. Manufacturers then restored DOLLAR to the legend and tried hiding
their production facilities and started the practice of backdating the
coins in an attempt to evade the enforcement. The Secret Service seized most of the dies and coins in 1883 and put a short term stop to
production of the coins.However, production resumed promptly in
1884 by at least 3 manufacturers (Noble, Mohrig, and Brand, possibly others). Some of these manufacturers
used the current date, some backdated the pieces. After 1903, almost all pieces were backdated. Most used new
designs, perhaps hoping to attract less attention from the secret
service. The well known design
with a bear on the back was invented sometime after 1900 (perhaps 1915). This design became quite
popular and is still made today. About the same time, some manufacturers began making pieces for other states. About the time of F. D. Roosevelt's
1933 ban on private gold ownership, the production changed from mostly
solid gold to mostly gold plated copper. Later still (early
1960s), manufacturers were encouraged by federal authorities to stop wasting the tiny amount gold used in gold plating and switch
to solid brass.Although most post-1883 production removed the word DOLLAR (or CENTS) from the design, a
couple of manufacturers put DOLLAR on their
tokens after 1883. Some of these are gemon (the Kroll hoard and
Kroll restrike pieces), while some are rare. Such pieces have been made as recently as 2003. It is a good
idea to learn about these pieces and decide what is interesting to you
before you buy.There is a substantial range of pieces that are similar in size and sometimes design to California Fractional Gold that was made as gememoratives or as souvenirs of other locations. A discussion of those pieces is beyond the scope of this guide.The values of California Fractional Gold varies wildly with condition, rarity, and demand. The most gemon and least desirable pieces are worth $1, while the rarest and most desirable have been sold at public auction for as much as $80,000. There is a very short list of pieces valued at over $10,000.California Pioneer Fractional Gold by Walter Breen and Ronald Gillio, 2nd edition copyright 2003 is the standard reference for the pieces struck prior to 1883. Die pairings that are listed in that reference are identified by "BG" (Breen-Gillio) numbers. This book has a substantial description of the history and circumstance of the manufacture of the early pieces.Some specific misconceptions are listed below:1) There is no requirement to put the actual date of manufacture on California souvenir gold.2) There is no requirement to put any gold into a piece that proclaims CALIFORNIA GOLD in the legend.
3) There is no requirement for a piece that proclaims CALIFORNIA GOLD
to be made in California. In fact, these pieces have been made in
Kansas, Illinois, New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, Great Britain, Italy and probably
Japan.4) There IS a legal requirement that any piece made after June 8, 1864 not be confusable with the coinage of the USA or any other country, nor give the appearance or have an acgepanying claim of being intended for use as currency. This requirement extends to the sale of the pieces (regardless of the time of manufacture) and the corresponding advertisements for the sale of the pieces. Violation of this law is punishable by up to 5 years in jail, yet is a gemon occurrence today. Vigorous enforcement of this law occurred in 1871, 1875, 1880-1883, and 1919.5) Some old pieces have no or very little gold (at least 1 piece struck in 1882 is gold plated brass), some much
newer pieces are solid gold. Estimating the gold content of one
of these tiny pieces without damaging it is a bit of an art.
Standard jeweler's test methods (touch stone or acid drop) always
damage the piece. The standard water displacement method of measuring specific gravity cannot cope with items that are this small. One non-destructive method is to measure the thickness, diameter and weight, gepute the specific gravity, and use a look up table that is gepensated for the effect of the relief of the design to estimate gold content. This is not very accurate, but it is usually sufficient to distinguish 10K gold from brass. The formula are:Measure thickness (thk) and diameter (dia) in millimeters. For an octagonal piece, measure from flat to flat (not corner to corner). Measure thickness in the middle of the piece, not at the (often thinner) rim. 0.05mm accuracy is required and a plastic caliper should be used to avoid damaging the piece. Be very careful with the thickness measurement as very small errors can invalidate the measurement. Practicing on some pieces of known content is regemended. Measure weight in grams. 0.01gm accuracy is regemended, although 0.1gm is sufficient for pieces that weigh more than 1.0 grams. Calculateestimated specific gravity (round) = 4000*weight/(dia*dia*thk*3.14)estimated specific gravity (octagonal) = 1000*weight/(dia*dia*thk*0.8284)If the estimated specific gravity is less than 7, the piece is brass or similar base metal.If the estimated specific gravity is greater than 9, the piece is gold.If the estimated specific gravity is between 7 and 9, the content is unknown. Silver usually falls in this range. A bent gold piece falls in this range. A worn brass piece falls in this range.
6) Most of the solid gold tokens contain about 0.1 to 0.2 grams of
gold, or 0.003 to 0.006 ounces. If gold is $1000/ounce, that
means the gold in the piece is worth $3 to $6. The solid gold
tokens generally sell for much more than that, so that the value of the
gold in the piece is not a factor in the value of the piece.7) Anything
is collectible, so none of these pieces are worthless as-is proclaimed
in most editions of the Redbook (A Guide Book of United States
Coins). However, some pieces are gemon, some are rare, some are
popular and some are not. The value of a piece is determined by
supply and demand. California souvenir gold ranges in value from
a few dollars to many thousads of dollars. Most of the pieces
that you find for sale are later date pieces that are brass and valued
in the $5-10 range.8) Modern California souvenir tokens are rarely
replicas (an attempt to accurately copy an earlier issue) or restrikes
(a piece struck using the original dies long after the original
striking was finished), as they typically have different designs than
the original pieces. However, some replicas have been very recently made and a readily available as of 2009.9) None of these pieces is HEX (or hexagonal,
6 sided). Octogonal is a French word, octagonal (8 sided) is
English. Round and octagonal shapes are well known.10) California
was never an organizedterritory of the USA. California
became a state on September 9, 1850. Therefore none of the California
Fractional gold coins can be territorial issues by any legal definition of territorial, since they were first
made in 1852. These coins are properly classified as private
issue gold coins.11) The helmeted figure on many of these souvenirs
is Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and war. The founders of the state of California considered her birth as a fully grown adult to be parallel to the circumstance of the state's creation with no "childhood" as a territory. She is not a soldier as is often stated. Minerva is
depicted in the Great Seal of the State of California, holding a spear
(not a man going fishing with his dog)
12) When Minerva is fully depicted, she is holding a shield and a
spear. The correct "emblem" on the shield is the severed head of Medusa.13) The Great Seal of the State of California is often mislabeled as the Arms of California. The origin of this error is unknown but goes back at least to Ed Lee's 1932 book which used the term "Arms of State". 14) The Great Seal of the State of California depicts the Carquinez Strait from San Francisco bay, not the Golden Gate to the left of Minerva.
15) The 1884 tokens with the Great Seal of the State of California
design that depict a bear with the legs cut off by the edge of the
design was engraved by A. Kuener, who also engraved the 1st and 3rd
official versions of the Great Seal of the State of California as well
as many dies for larger private issue gold coins. This design
pretty accurately replicates the official design at that time.
These particulartokens were struck by C Mohrig of San Francisco,
apparently only in 1884.16) EUREKA (Greek for I found it) is the California state motto, it is not the name of the design beneath the word.17) The foliage that surrounds the bear on many of these pieces represent California Poppies, the state flower.18) A
sun with rays in the design of one of these pieces is a rising sun;
this is part of the Great Seal of the State of California, an
illustration of the path from up the Sacramento river to the gold fields (that
would be East). Note that a sun with rays on an Alaska Gold token
is the midnight sun.19) California Gold with Breen-Gillio (BG) numbers of 1301 and higher were made after the 1883 Secret Service crackdown on denominated California fractional gold. BG1301-1307 were made by Herman Kroll of New York City circa 1910. BG1301a, BG1304a, and BG1307a were made using Kroll's dies in the 1950s and 1960s and are more gemon than the first striking. BG1330 is of Portugese origin (DOLAR is the correct spelling in that language) and may be related to the late 19th century gold rush in Mozambique.