Here's a section that will be right up GDJMSP's street,as he lives in Utah.It is about the private Mormon gold coins.
Aidan is referring to genuine coins. When the Mormon pioneers first came to the Salt Lake valley they actually established their own country. It was known as the State of Deseret. Of course the United States govt. was not very happy about this and told the people of Utah to file for territorial status and become a US Territory. The Mormons refused. Eventually this led to an actual state of war between the US and the State of Deseret. The US sent an army led by General Johnson to make the Mormons submit by force of arms. But other than a few minor skirmishes there never was a major battle and the two sides reached an agreement for Utah to become a US Territory. But prior to all of this taking place - Utah was an independent country. And like any country, they needed money, coins, in order to conduct trade. So they minted their own coins in gold. Today, very few of these coins exist. The ones that do are quite expensive. I'll find pics of the coins later and post them when I have more time.
Actually, Utah was a territory when President Buchanan sent 2500 troops under the command of Albert Sidney Johnston (later a Confederate general who died at Shiloh) to enforce federal law in the territory. There was a dispute between territorial officials (all Mormons) and Federal officials (none Mormon) over the influence of the Mormon church in territorial affairs. Although both sides continued to distrust each other up through the First World War, the "Mormon War" of 1857 was resolved without a shot being fired. Most of the Mormon gold coins were minted before Utah became a territory (in 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850), when Utah - or Deseret, if you prefer - still thought of itself as an independent theocratic kingdom. (There's a reason my father calls me a "useless font of trivial information." )
KLJ - I know your account is what most of the histroy books say, but it isn't quite accurate in many regards. Not that it matters as this is about the coins. To read more about the history of Mormon gold - Click Here To see a picture of one of the coins - Click Here And yes Aidan, they did issue notes. In fact they issued notes long before they issued coins and after they issued coins. You can read a bit about them - HERE
I believe they called it 'script', but you can read and view the different coins and paper noney at this site: http://www.mormonmoney.com/
Breen quotes philadelphia mint assay reports of the "Mormon" coins as being significantly underweight and gold percentage far from "pure gold". He mentions that banks took the coins at a 25% discount to face at the time. Also that the Utah pioneers had a person who had worked at an English mint, but did not know how to harden dies, so die damage occurred very rapidly and the impressions were far from sharp. Also it seems they had bad luck with the 1848(49) mintage in that their crucibles used to melt the gold broke and there was no readily obtained substitute. If a real coiner had been in the group, the history might be different
Clark Smith of coinvault had that for sale in the past. You can view the example at his site: http://www.coinvault.com