This is a short list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) regarding California and similar private gold coins, by Mike Locke. My home page is at http://www.calgoldcoin.com My email address is lockem@calgoldcoin.com This is narative rather than question and answer. Please read all of the information here to find an answer to your question. I do have three question-answer since I have been getting asked this one very frequently: Q: Where do I go for more information on California gold coins? A: I provide the following web pages http://www.calgoldcoin.com/calgold.txt (period 1 California fractional gold-type 4 in the list below, superceded by Breen-Gillio II) http://www.calgoldcoin.com/tokens.htm (index page to over 1100 illustrations of Cal gold tokens-type 5 & 6 in the list below) http://www.calgoldcoin.com/book_review.htm (list of books on California gold coins) You need to cut and paste these pointers to the URL line on your browser. Q: I have a California gold coin that gives the denomination as 1/4, 1/2, or 1 and has a bear depected beneath that. What is it? A: You have a California gold souvenir token. These souvenirs were made from about 1900 through 1970 and are usually gold plated brass. They are valued from $2 to $80 (higher value for the early issue solid gold pieces). Not all souvenir tokens from this period have the bear on the back, but all tokens with the bear are tokens from this period. See my California gold token guide for a listing of the varieties that I have seen. Q: I have a Cincinnati Mining and Trading Co. twenty dollar coin. Is this worth something? A: Yes and no. The Cincinnati Mining and Trading Co. never succeeded in making gold coins in California. They did make a couple of pattern pieces before they "headed out west". These pieces are extremely rare and valuable today. Most of them are gold and weigh about 33grams. HOWEVER, a company called Martguild makes brass or gold plated cast zinc replicas of popular coins. There may have been other companies making such replicas. These reproductions are extremely common and have very little value. Other large pioneer gold coins have been similarly reproduced, but this one seems to be the most common. The most common of these has "TRADING" misspelt as "TRACING". Blake and Co $20 "gold" tokens are even more common. *** Private gold coins are coins made by private companies for circulation within the United States of America. Until 1864 the only restrictions on non-US mint manufacturing of coins was that they had to be silver or gold to be legal tender and they could not be made by a state government. Of course, private coins were expected to have the correct weight or "Standard Metal Value" (S.M.V. as often seen on these coins). Unfortunately, some of the coins were significantly underweight, and complaints about this precipitated the law of 1864 which made private coinage illegal. Private mintage USA silver coins are extremely rare, as are silver patterns of private issue gold coins. A few private mint copper-nickel and copper coins were made (often in large quantities), but these were never legal tender and were not allowed to give a denomination in U.S. currency ("NOT ONE CENT", was popular). The private coiner was supposed to make a profit by underpaying the commissioner (the person that brought in the gold), which was also the practice at the U.S. mint at that time. The allowed profit margin was very small, only a few percent. Underweight private gold coins were frequently the subject of discussion in period newspapers. The word spread quickly, and underweight pieces would not circulate. As a result, these coins (the majority of California gold coins) are very rare today. The famous $50 gold "slugs" of Augustus Humbert are actually slightly overweight. These coins were made in very large quantities and circulated easily. However, being overweight made it profitable to melt them, so they too are rare today. One enterprising gold rush banker would advertise that certain private gold coins are underweight (even though they were not) but that his bank was buying them at a fair, reduced value. This scam also helped decimate the quantities of private gold coins that have survived today. I like to categorize private gold coins 7 ways: 1) Original large denomination production strike 2) Original large denomination pattern strike 3) Large denomination reproductions 4) Small denomination circulation pieces 5) Small denomination souvenir gold pieces 6) Small denomination souvenir "junk" pieces 7) Counterfeits of category 4 or 5 pieces Category 1, 2, 4, and 5 can be quite valuable. Some category 3 and 6 pieces have a modest value, but most are worth $5 or less. I have seen a Category 7 piece fetch $8500 at auction, so BEWARE! Large denomination coins range from $1 to $50 face value. Some gold ingots also exist with a value stamped on them, and these can be larger than $50. All gold ingots were individually weighed and are unique; authenticating such a piece is very difficult. Maybe a few dozen ingots survive today, plus the very large hoard recovered from the US mailship Central America. There are many more known manufacturers of ingots than there are known ingots. Renowed late numismatist John Ford reported that now destroyed San Francisco mint archives recorded that private gold ingots were being melted at the SF mint at a rate of 100,000 per year for more than a decade. This would indicate that we should expect to find a significant number of "forgotten" ingots. However more recent research has indicated that this claim is fraudulent, with the SF mint archives being complete, intact, and containing no records of large numbers of private assay office ingots being melted. It is possible that a significant number of private assay office gold ingots that exist today are counterfeits. Small denomination coins range from $0.25 to $1 face value. The distinction between large vs small denomination on $1 pieces is based on the manufacturer: if the manufacturer only made coins of $1 or less then the pieces are "small denomination" and if the manufacturer only made coins of $1 or more, then the pieces are "large denomination". No manufacturers are known to have made both large and small denomination coins. Unlike large denomination coins, the small denomination coins are usually far short of S.M.V., typically containing about 60% of the correct amount of metal. None have S.M.V. on them. Large denomination coins were made in Georgia (they had a gold rush in 1830!), California, Utah (made from California gold), Oregon, and Colorado (gold rush in 1860). S.M.V. is 31 grams for every $20 in value, or $16 for 31 grams of unrefined California gold (these are not exactly the same, but this was the practice of the day). The easiest way to identify a category 3 coin is to weigh it. Gold is very heavy in comparison to most other metals, so assuming that the size of the coin is correct, if it is not gold it will be light. Category 1 coins range in value from $750 and up. A category 2 and a category 3 coin can be confused. Category 2 coins are the most valueable of any private issues. They are often struck in lead, copper, or silver, so the weight may not be correct (that "heavy" metal, lead, is almost exactly the same weight as silver and about 1/2 the weight of gold). In addition they may be a "splasher" test piece, which will have an irregular edge. In any case all category 2 coins are struck from dies, and an expert should be able to determine if that is the case with any particular piece. Category 2 coins range in value from $5000 and up. Unless your piece can be traced back to a private gold manufacturer, it is very unlikely to be category 2. Most surviving category 2 pieces have been handed down through the family of the manufacturers or through friends of same. Due to their nature, they were never available to the general public. Most category 3 coins were made in the 1950s or 1960s as sale promotional items. They are usually cast and of poor quality. Most of them can easily be identified by the tell-tale rough edge and rough and irregular surfaces. Any coin dealer should be able to identify a cast piece. Category 3 coins range in value from $1 to $100. A few category 3 coins are gold (reproduction UTAH/Mormon gold, 1976 Bicentennial medal, an extremely rare Nevada City Mint souvenir), although all others that I have seen are not gold. The gold UTAH piece is clearly marked as a reproduction while the other gold category 3 pieces do not replicate original private gold designs. A particular sub-category of category 3 tokens, $50 octagonal "slug" immitations, are popular to collect and have been made in varying qualities since at least 1906. The better quality and scarcer examples of these are worth up to $100 or so. Category 4 coins are the ones that I collect. See my California fractional gold coin page for more information. These coins were only made in California, apparently in San Francisco by jewelers. They either have no date (1852), or are dated from 1852 through 1856. The San Francisco mint started full production of silver coins in 1856, so the need for these hard to use pieces was eliminated that year. Besides, it was popular to keep any of these coins as a souvenir, which impeded their achieving much circulation. These coins may have been treated as legal tender, and give a U.S. dollar denomination on them. Category 4 coins range in value from $75 and up. Category 5 coins attest to the fact that San Francisco has been a tourist town for a very long time. By 1860 there was enough tourist demand for "a piece of the gold rush" that it was profitable to once again make these tiny coins (the larger denominations being too expensive for use as tourist trinkets). Because these coins were not intended to circulate, they are usually very light weight, 50% of S.M.V. or less. A US mint assay of 1859 dated specimens gave a value of 25% of S.M.V. A few are gold plated over silver or brass! Some are back dated to the 1850s, although most are dated between 1860 and 1883. ALL STATE A DENOMINATION IN U.S. DOLLARS OR CENTS. Note that it was illegal to make these pieces after the law of 1864 passed; however the law was not enforced until 1871 and not fully enforced until 1883. All category 5 coins state that they contain California Gold on them, although some were made by a Kansas manufacturer. Category 5 coins range in value from $50 and up. The distinction between category 5 and category 6 coins is a bit picky. Category 6 do not state a U.S. dollar denomination. Some category 6 coins contain a larger amount of gold than some category 5 coins, although most category 6 coins are gold plated brass or silver, or even simply brass. Category 6 coins have been made in association with fairs in various states (most notably the 1909 Alaska Yukon Exposition in Seattle, Wash and the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco). Some Category 6 coins are very rare, but collector interest is very small so the value also tends to be very small. Category 6 coins range in value from $1 to $100. All known Category 7 coins were made between 1900 and 1970. All were made from new dies which do not match the old designs. They are best identified by comparing your piece to a list of the known pieces. If neither the obverse nor the reverse match the designs that are known, you most likely have a category 7 coin. These coins are usually similar in weight to a category 4 coin and are gold, so they have some minimum value for the gold weight in them. They range in value from $5 to $50. Some of the early issues (the so called "Kroll hoard") are collected and worth a bit more than the weight of the gold. One souvenir token from Portugal (BG1330) has been confused with California gold category 7 tokens! I have illustrations of some Category 7 tokens under the rogue category on my token page. The best reference texts are (the first 3 are heavily illustrated): "Private Gold Coins and Patterns of the United States" by Donald H Kagin copyright 1981. Covers category 1, 2, and 3 in detail. Gives inaccurate information on category 4 and 5 coins. Still in print and available signed from the author. Email at kagins@earthlink.net "California Pioneer Fractional Gold" by Walter Breen and Ronald Gillio. copyright 2003, 2nd edition. Covers category 4 and 5 coins in detail. Gives a small amount of information of category 6 coins. Out of print but still available for under $100. This gives the standard numbering scheme that is in use today. "Small California and Territorial Gold Coins" by R.H. Burnie copyright 1955. No pictures in this book. Covers category 4, 5, 6, and 7 coins in detail. Category 4 and 5 listings include many doubtful and/or inaccurate listings. However, the long list of category 6 and 7 pieces is of some (albeit very limited) value. Out of print, but available for about $40. Watch out for the rare "green covers" edition, or for the very scarce signature of Mr. Burnie. "The Brasher Bulletin" the periodical club bulletin of The Society of Private and Pioneer Numismatists. All but one issue is available for a modest price from the club secretary. Of course that one unavailable issue contains the only published exhaustive list of Alaska category 6 pieces (illustrated too!). This publication contains documentation of many newly discovered pieces that are not listed in the publications noted above. Don Kagin has recently taken over publication of this periodical and club membership information can be received by emailing kagins@earthlink.net If I still haven't answered your question, email me at lockem@calgoldcoin.com Please include a description of all of the design and lettering, the diameter of the piece, the edge (rough, reeded, smooth, lettered), the shape of the piece (round, octagonal, etc), and the weight of the piece if you want a meaningful answer.