Any info on Thomas Bolton of California Fractionals?

Zoins

There have been a number of California Fractional token dies attributed to Thomas Bolton like the following which has been on the bay for a long time.

Is there anything known about him? Is he mentioned in any research on California Fractionals?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Very-Rare-1855-California-Gold-Token-Coin-Die-Thomas-Bolton/223260299591

RogerB

The ebay item appears to have been punched into the steel. It was not cut with a graver.

CaptainBlunt

Zoins. Not familiar wth Thomas Bolton
item in question was used to make one sided base metal shells , clothing dangles?

thebeav

That's a great call Captain. I've had costume jewelry pieces with 'shell'coins hanging from them. Like charm bracelets and such.
I would have to think that an actual die, something like from"Hart's Coins of the West", would be worth considerably more than 350.
As Roger pointed out, it's rather crude and not 'cut'.

Zoins

Here's another die I ran across attributed to Thomas Bolton while looking for fractionals. Would be great to nail down what these actually are, if they are for costume jewelry or something else.

Christopher Terry, "The Cal Gold Guy", of Old West Gold Coins has one of the dies and had some restrikes made recently. The description is below, emphasis mine.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/302883926840

New OldWestGold California Tokens First Strikes / HR5 LIMITED STRIKE OF ONLY 35!

This is an opportunity to help us celebrate our buying and selling California fractional gold tokens for 45 years. We got together with Alaska coinage historian Dick Hanscom of Fairbanks, Alaska to strike a very limited number of these silver tokens with an original vintage token die we obtain. A picture of the actual obverse die is shown. This die is stamped on the side Thomas Bolton. Bolton was a famous die maker during the turn of the century. Dick Hanscom was able to use this very die along with creating a reverse die using Oldwestgold stamped into it. Very neat. It was a lengthy process of engraving the reverse die, refining and melting the silver into planchets. He then used an antique screw press to make the tokens. Each are approximately 12mm in diameter. A total of 35 were struck in .999 fine silver. This auction is for 1 silver token. Die and penny not included, only for reference. To find the gold variety check our other listings. They will be available until our supply runs out. Several sets have already been committed.