I believe @Insider will be able to tell you about the piece and answer your questions. It might be a California gold piece.
It’s a California Half Dollar Octagonal Gold Piece. In 1850 to the California gold rush caused a shortage of coins. Private Mints in California begin producing small denomination gold Coins to alleviate that problem. A coin law was passed in April 1864 which made private coinage illegal but the law was not enforced until 1883. In compliance with the law, non-denominational tokens were made. From 1872 until 1883 both Coins and tokens were produced. After 1883 in the majority of the production was tokens. Most pieces made after 1881 are backdated to the 1850s or 60s and this circumvented the law and made them more acceptable to the public. Earlier issues have Liberty heads while later issues have Indian heads. Most have a wreath on the reverse but there are a number of designs. Over 570 varieties are known with some of them being rare. The quality of the strike and the treatment of the edge is very inconsistent. Many of these items have there makers initials.
I was led to believe, don't remember where I read it, that pieces with CAL on the piece are replicas.
Not all of them. You can find a few California Gold Pieces in your Red Book. Some of the real ones have CAL and some don’t.
These are often It was more than often that these pieces were struck more than once. Just take another look at the gold piece. I am satisfied with it's authenticity.
