I found this coin and i have noo idea is it real or fake..? I searched the internet and didnt find nothing.The year is 1849 , there is a metal sheath over the coin its used as a necklace .
My grand grandpa was at this time in America and its brought by him but i dont know anything else.Its over 200 years and itis in this condition
That is what I heard too. If a bear is depicted on the coin, it is a remake or fake. And usually have little to no gold in them
And the fact it is crudely made. The bear did not get used for the symbol until years later.1953 in fact when the last one was killed in the state.
Did trappers ever make tokens to trade between themselves while out in the wild before the winter was over?
This is a fake. It cannot be a coin because there is no value on it to trade commercially. If it were a token, they were made from 1872 until 1883. Even when backdated, they were not found with earlier dates before the 1850's. A quote directly from the Redbook: "Beware of extremely common modern replicas (often having a bear in the design), which have little numismatic value". This would include gold content as well. Many tokens were simply gold plated for appearance sake.