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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;rickmp, post: 2068816, member: 28047&quot;]From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p><p><br /></p><p><b>California gold coinage</b> was produced from the early 1850s until 1882. In the early period, from roughly 1852 through 1856, the coins were made for actual use due to a lack of familiar small <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denomination_(currency)" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denomination_(currency)" rel="nofollow">denomination</a> currency in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush" rel="nofollow">California gold fields</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gold_coinage#cite_note-RawlsMint-1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gold_coinage#cite_note-RawlsMint-1" rel="nofollow">[1]</a> This shortage eased around 1856 and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_coin" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_coin" rel="nofollow">gold coins</a> made in the later period appear to have been intended only as souvenirs. They generally show little <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circulation_(currency)" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circulation_(currency)" rel="nofollow">circulation</a>wear and contain less gold than would be expected from their <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_value" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_value" rel="nofollow">face value</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>California gold was made in denominations of $1, 50 cents, and 25 cents. As a result, the coins were quite small. Some are round; others<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octagon" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octagon" rel="nofollow">octagonal</a>. They were issued by private businesses, usually <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewellery" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewellery" rel="nofollow">jewelers</a>, and were often hand-struck.</p><p>********</p><p><br /></p><p>I suppose the poor quality could be because of being struck by hand.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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