From a now small town, rich in the formative history of California. ca. early 20th century: From a little earlier: Earlier still: On May 31, 1849, in the first known reference to private coinage to appear in any of the California papers, the editors of the Alta California observed: "We have in our possession a Five Dollar gold coin, struck at Benicia City, although the imprint is San Francisco. In general appearance it resembles the United States coin of the same value, but it bears the private stamp of "Norris, Grieg & Norris", and is in other particulars widely different."
Here's something on the other end of the quality spectrum. My mother's husband buys a lot of junk off of those tv commercials, purchased some gold Trump "coins" (1/200th of an ounce) and got this uber cheap wristwatch thrown in for free. He knows I collect coins so figured I would definitely want it, couldn't bring myself to tell him it wasn't worth anything so just said thank you and accepted it.
Here's a new token I got recently, Youngrenn Bros Saloon, I think, I haven't looked it up yet. Also a pushed out IH token and an 1882 freak of a token that's almost 2" in diameter and around 3/8" thick, it's truly an oddball!
