Hey everybody! I have what I thought was a California $1 Gold Piece when I bought it but after some research and grading I found it is a piece of "Hart's Coins of the West" which is some souvenir coin made in the early 1900's. Not quite sure if you can call it a fake because it still commands value for what it is even though it is dated 1849. That's where the question starts with this coin/souvenir/oddball token. The NGC Label reads "1849 Dated Cal Gold $1 Minerva Bear Token MS 65 Hart's Coins of the West". It is round, not octagonal. The red book has the same Minerva Bear but it is dated 1915 opposed to 1849. Farther down I find the California Round series but that doesn't have the Minerva Bear. I have been told by dealers that the Bear meant the coin was fake. So is this a pattern coin combo of the Minerva Bear design with the date of 1849 instead of 1915? Your thoughts???
Go look it up here and you should find the answers to all your questions - http://users.scronline.com/lockem/
Thanks Doug for the help. I never found my exact token, but I did stumble across this one on Heritage. Exact same except mine is dated 1849. If these are of the same value, I think I got a good deal. http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=1156&lotNo=10073
