A California gold fractional to my gold type set.

I have been wanting one of these for a while now to add to my type set...being that I live and grew up in California. This is a period 1 1856 50 cent fractional that I recently purchased(the 25 centers are just too darn tiny). This is a very VERY difficult coin to photograph, so I will try to get some better shots up later. Anyways, opinions??

 

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Ooooooooo, nice.
It's not something I ever thought of adding to my type set.
Just completely missed them.
I'll have to think about this.

I like examples of coins slightly off the beaten path.
That's why I got a "D" and "C" half eagle from around 1850.
California gold would fit right in there with this idea.

BTW, it would help your images if the slab had the scratches polished off.
I've just learned that. Makes a BIG difference.
And not hard to do.

 

Nice coin ! The first photo of the obv. is nice , try taking a similar one of the rev. and you're all set

 

why not tell us how you polish the slabs?

 

I use Novus Plastic Polish.
Kit comes with 3 bottles: Cleaner/Shiner, Fine Scratch Remover and Heavy Scratch Remover

This topic has been discussed in here and fairly recently (don't remember the thread).
Lots of other choices, many from the automotive arena.
Google "plastic polish".

 

thanks Kanga. That is a good idea, as the slab is a bit beat up. The reverse is harder to photograph since the coin is so thin, and is sunk way deep into the slab, while the obverse is right up against the clear plastic.

This particular variety is considered an R-4, which means it is neither rare, nor common as far as cal gold is concerned(75-200 examples).
__________________

 

A second light positioned at about 5-6 o'clock would take care of a lot of that shadow difficulty.

 

Congrats, anything gold is good with me.

 

just like Apple say's "There's an App for that." at CT, "There's a Thread for that." (already)...:whistle:

Here's kanga's thread that disscussed polishing:
PCGS & NGC - Same Plastic in Slabs?

 

Who owns the dies?

Thanks for posting the picture of the slab. BG, of course, stands for Breen-Gillio. Ron Gillio updated Walter Breen's work on these coins. Breen was ideologically pre-sold on their authenticty as a corpus. But other cataloguers of earlier times simply presented a taxonomy -- differences by type -- without strong judgments about their legality or legalisms.

I had one, also. Attributed it against four catalogues. Finally dumped it. It is not clear to me that these are not all "jeweler's pieces." The early date means nothing. In California at the time of the gold rush small silver from Mexico and Philadephia was at a premium, but no one could figure out how to buy enough of it to ship in to make a difference.

With gold "everywhere" prices rose astronomically, making such small change nearly useless... or so it is said.

There are many stories about these coins and the gold rush.

When Michael Hodder was defending John Ford, he found interesting first hand accounts ... but if I re-read them with a different accent and cadence, they said something else, entirely...

It is most likely to me that the contexts were different in places otherwise "close" together or in the same place in times that were "close" together. Different facts were reported second hand in newspapers and then were interpreted later by numismatists and historians.

Donald H. Kagin earned in Ph.D. in numismatics for work in this area. His book is highly recommended.
www.kaginsinc.com

 

They'd also be better if you took it out of the slab.

 

Very coooooooool !

 

Beautiful coin , you're right the halves are small , the quarters are too small , but a neat part of our history .
rzage