![]() ![]() This $20 gold coin was minted and marked as a U.S. ![]() However, transporting raw California gold to the New Orleans or Philadelphia Mints was time-consuming and treacherous… San Francisco Assay Office strikes coins Mints “back east” struck $1 gold coins and $20 gold coins for the first time. As “Forty Niner” prospectors poured into California by land or sea, the U.S. Gold bullion available for coinage rapidly increased during the California gold rush. (Though a dollar is not usually considered fractional, it’s included here because its face value was much smaller than pioneer gold coins of $5 and higher.) U.S. ![]() These coins filled the bill for larger transactions.įor smaller transactions, privately minted “California Fractional” gold coins in denominations of 25¢, 50¢ and $1 were introduced. “Pioneer Gold Coins” in denominations of $5, $10, $20 and $50 were struck by numerous California firms from 1849-1856. The next California gold rush currency featured gold coins and ingots privately produced by jewelers, engravers or goldsmiths. If the price of a drink at the saloon was “a pinch of gold,” it meant how much gold dust the barkeep could extract from a miner’s pouch with his thumb and forefinger! Privately minted coins and ingots And the bright yellow metal became the currency used to pay for goods and services. So most people had a pouch of gold dust or nuggets. Though little coinage was available during the boomtown years, many prospectors were findng gold in or near streams and rivers. legal tender was the only accepted currency. And merchants were hoarding coins to pay for imported goods at the Customs House in San Francisco, where U.S. coins like Liberty Seated silver quarters and silver half dollars were available to conduct business in the fast-growing California economy. Hundreds of thousands of prospectors, merchants and other fortune hunters soon made their way to California…īut few U.S. Well worth the read.When gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in California in 1848, it kicked off the largest mass migration in American history. Then, they started back-dating them to pre-1858 so even new coins would look like Period One coins, when private minting was tolerated ! Uncle Sam didn't fall for that one, either.Īnyway, it's a long and complex story. That is why they started putting Indians on them ! Again, Uncle Sam was unimpressed. They could keep making trinkets and claim they weren't money !īut since many of them had a visage of Liberty similar to the Type 1 Gold Dollar, Uncle Sam considered them illegal anyway. That is why the privates removed the denomination. They always traded at a discount in banks back East. ![]() But by 1858, they were obsolete.īefore long, the Secret Service began to crack down on the privates, and for good reason - they had always been inferior quality and rarely, if ever, contained the proper amount of gold. Through 1857, the Mint tolerated the private mints and jewelers because they provided a valuable service. Private minting is tantamount to counterfeiting. For this reason, there are many Mint State, even Proof Like, specimens around.įor this same reason, there many damaged bezel-mounted pieces around. That is THE critical thing to understand about Period Two coins they were NOT intended for circulation. And so begins Period Two coinage (1858-1882). The California Fractional coins were a unique and distinctive part of "The California Experience", even though they were obsolete - so the jewelers kept on making coins - for souvenirs. Originally, many came for the Gold Rush, but by 1858 many were coming for tourism and curiousity. From the earliest days of the Gold Rush California was, of course, world famous. ![]()
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