Hello, I'm not a coin collector, and I found this site via google. I have a few california gold coins from my grandfather that I am having difficulty identifying. I did some searches and found some that were similar but was unable to find any exact matches for both the dates and the descriptions. So if anyone could help me out, I'm interested in knowing a bit about the coins--if it looks real or fake/not a coin, if there's some sort of reference ID number for it, what they were worth at the time, what they may be worth now. I don't have a digital camera, but I used my scanner to get a picture of the front and back. The first coin is dated 1849 and has an indian head and thirteen stars on the front; the back says california gold, and has a sort of wreathe, mountains and sun, and a bear. I have three of this coin. The second coin is dated 1855 and has an indian head and thirteen stars on the front as well; the back has a wreathe with california gold and a single star in the middle. I appreciate any help, thank you.
i just read in the red book (you should get one. awesome info) and i quote "the tokens are generally much less valuable. modern restrikes and replicas (which often have a bear in the design) have no numismatic value. page304. their are alot more knowledgable people in this forum then i. someone i am sure will give you feedback. thanks for posting.
Welcome to the Forum CondorMorgan ;-) California fractional gold coins are likely one of the most copied and/or counterfeited gold coins there are. Many collectors spent their entire lives believing they owned genuine items when they did not. There are far more copies, tokens and outright counterfeits than there are genuine coins. With many of them it is rather easy to tell the difference. With others it requires an expert. There is a web site that will likely help you identify just about any fractional gold coin or token - http://www.calgoldcoin.com/default.htm It may take some time to go through the site as it is extensive. But if you can't find your anwers here - you're not likely to find them at all without personally consulting an expert face to face. Hope this helps.
These coins are tokens. All real California gold has the denomination clearly marked. These type of tokens sell for around a dollar
