Ive seen many of these california golds , are they authentic ,commenitrives? Does pcgs recognize coins like this? are they worth buying?
IF it's authentic - and I don't know if that one is - then YES PCGS recognizes them. So do other major TPGs. Major auction houses have a special category for them - Territorial Gold. So does E-Bay : http://coins.listings.ebay.com/Gold_Fractional-Pioneer_W0QQcatrefZC4QQfromZR9QQfromZR9QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ3QQfstypeZ1QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQsacatZ39473QQsocmdZListingItemList Check your Red Book to see if you can find one like yours. A while back, Clinker had a fascinating trivia thread about the 1848 CAL quarter eagle gold pieces. Along with these Territorial Gold items, they form a teriffic history lesson. Personally, I think they're really cool... a very, very important part of US numismatic history. Some are very valuable.
Like said, yes, PCGS does grade them. Could you post bigger pics of the coin? Hard to tell for me atleast if it is real or not. Some others probably can help you out better than me. But in the meantime, would you be able to post bigger pics? Overall, from what I see, a nice coin. :thumb: Phoenix
Be extremely careful with the California fractional gold coin series.There's a lot of extremely deceptive forgeries out there. Aidan.
Do a quick search on Ebay. I found a token just like yours in just a few minutes. There are thousands of these tokens for sale.
Definitely a token and not a coin. You can tell by the fact that it just says 1/4, not 1/4 Dollar or 1/4 Dol. or 25 cents.
I would be careful with this logic. It might be true... or not. I don't know. These Territorial Gold issues are very non-standardized. Often, designs were improvised in very primitive frontier conditions. Pp. 364-366 of the 2007 Red book state there are 570 different varieties of California fractional gold, and an estimated 35,000 specimens survived. Of the 570 varieties, The Red Book lists only a small fraction :rolling: (sorry, I just couldn't pass up that pun...) Clearly, this is specialist territory (ouch... another pun). Here's a book on the subject : "Private Gold Coins and Patterns of the United States" by Donald H. Kagin, PhD... http://www.money.org/source/Orders/index.cfm?section=unknown&task=3&CATEGORY=BOOKS&PRODUCT_TYPE=SALES&SKU=BKKA1&DESCRIPTION=&FindSpec=gold&CFTOKEN=13852600&continue=1&SEARCH_TYPE=FIND&StartRow=1&PageNum=1 By definition, Territorial Gold are coins, not tokens. They are not commemeratives. They were for commerce; it was better to assay - standardize - the gold than barter with non-standard gold dust or nuggets. Certainly, Aidan is right when he says "be careful". Unless you're a specialist, buy only coins slabbed by the best... or avoid 'em all together, unless you don't mind possibly losing money on a fake.
I've got one (modern copy) which is octagonal and IS made of gold. Only thing is I can't remember where I put it after looking at it last...
At first glance, it looked fake to me as well, but I checked my reference to be sure (Small California and Territorial Gold Coins" by R.H. Burnie). Burnie does not list any quarter dollars (round) with an 1861 date.
Yes there are over 570 different varieties, but ALL of them have the denomination specified in some way such as D, Dol, Doll, Dolls etc. NONE of them have just a fraction or just say California gold with no fraction or statement of denomination. Also NONE of them have a bear on them. Knowing those two things will eliminate probably 95% or more of the fakes out there.
