1848: Gold Dust @ $4.oz ... the Real Bubble was in miner stock!

Re: The California Gold-Rush

Does someone have a chart/index of US miner stock, c.1868-75 ?

Public domain: The Encyclopedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences... Vol. 5 (1910) p.13
"At first the diggings were chiefly along the rivers. These were “flumed,”—that is, the water was diverted by wooden flumes from the natural channel and the sand and gravel in the bed were washed. All the “gulches” or ravines leading down into the canyons were also worked over, with or without water. These were the richest “placers,” but in them the gold was very unequally distributed. Those who first got possession of the rich bars on the American, Yuba, Feather, Stanislaus and the other smaller streams in the heart of the gold region, made sometimes from $1000 to $5000 a day; but after one rich spot was worked out it might be days or weeks before another was found. In 1848 $500-700 a day was not unusual luck; but, on the other hand, the income of the great majority of miners was certainly far less than that of men who seriously devoted themselves to trade or even to common labour. Many extraordinary nuggets were found, varying from $1000 to $20,000 in value. The economic stimulus given by such times may be imagined. For several years gold-dust was a regular circulating medium in the cities as well as in the mining districts of the state. An ounce of dust in 1848 frequently went for $4 instead of $17; for a number of years traders in dust were sure of a margin of several dollars, as for example in private coinage, mints for which were common by 1851. From the record of actual exports and a comparison of the most authoritative estimates of total production, it may be said that from 1848 to 1856 the yield was almost certainly not less than $450,000,000, and that about 1870 the billion dollar mark had been passed. Just at this time came the highest point and the sudden fall of the second great mining fever of the state. This was a stock speculation based on the remarkable output ($300,000,000 in 20 years) of the silver “bonanzas” of the Comstock lode at Virginia City, Nevada, which were opened and financed by San Francisco capitalists. The craze pervaded all classes. Shares that at first represented so many dollars per foot in a tangible mine were multiplied and remultiplied until they came to represent paper thicknesses or almost nothing, yet still their prices mounted upward. In April 1872 came the revulsion; there was a shrinkage of $60,000,000 in ten days; then in 1873 a tremendous advance, and in 1875 a final and disastrous collapse; in ten years thereafter the stock of the Comstock lode shrank from $3,000,000 to $2,000,000. This Comstock fever belongs to Californian rather than to Nevadan history, and is one of the most extraordinary in mining annals."

 

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But actually no. I'd never seen that Gold dust had traded for as little as $4. /oz. in California, 1848. That local Gold Price collapse was what? ~-75% ? I suppose that's quite extraordinary, to say nothing of the vast inflation on goods sold in that region ... and (apart from 1980) if you have other PM data showing any Gold Price Collapse like that anywhere else please do share.

In 1847 the Lima Mint (Peru) Price for fine Au was S$ 19.5342 or USD$ 20.71 ... the London Price in Nov 1847 (standard Au) was £ 3.877 and the French 20-Franc at fine bullionweight ~$20.60? In 1850, Jacob Eckfeldt* (1850) had this to say:

"Gold is not measured by the pint, at least not out of California; yet it may be interesting to know, that a dry-measure pint of California grains is found to weigh from 141 to 143.5 ounces; value about $2560, The average specific gravity is consequently 9.961; so that it occupies about twice as much bulk, in that form, as when melted and cast into bars. A pint of African dust was found to Weigh 148 ounces."
*New Varieties of Gold and Silver Coins, Counterfeit Coins, and Bullion ... By Jacob Reese Eckfeldt, William Ewing Du Bois (1850) p.55

1849/50: US Mint Value of 1 Troy Ounce California Gold Dust : USD$ 17.84 - 18.16

 

Comstock Lode Miners are un-frikken-believable. I see now why Mark Twain was imagined to have said "A mine is a hole in the ground with a liar on top."

In 1869, Belcher was worth between $12. - 35., sank to $1. in 1870; rose to $6 in January 1871 an dthen to - hahaha! - $ 450. a share in December 1871; then back down to $6. in January 1872 and then WHEEEEEE! up to $ 1,525 in April 1872, then down to - ugh! $1.50 in the Summer 1872 then back to $95.
(And so on. For years.) The record gain in one month" From $0.25 >>> $113.

This might be a fun read while you digest your turkey tomorrow. Enjoy!
http://www.nevadaobserver.com/Lord 15.htm