Beware of this Bear?
Zoins
Posts: 34,117 ✭✭✭✭✭
To beware or not to beware?
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Zoins
Posts: 34,117 ✭✭✭✭✭
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I love the reverse.
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CoinsAreFun Toned Silver Eagle Proof Album
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Gallery Mint Museum, Ron Landis& Joe Rust, The beginnings of the Golden Dollar
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More CoinsAreFun Pictorials NGC
Agree. The font for "California Gold" is awesome.
Fantasy coin produced in the 1960's. No real fractional gold coin had a bear on it and the real ones all had a denomination with cents or dollar or an abbreviation. It's not made from gold. These were brass or gold plated brass.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
I'm certainly no expert, but I've never seen a fractional dated 1849, never seen a fractional with "ONE" and never seen a fractional with a Bear that was a legitimate issue. as PerryHall says, these were struck during the 1960's en masse right around the corner from me in the Greater Cleveland area.
it would appear to be a fantasy copy of a fantasy issue that was never actually made, though I could be wrong.
looking a little deeper I see this was issued by M.E. Hart, probably from his Coins of the West fantasy sets from the 1915 California exhibition when he was in cahoots with Zerbe or whoever it was that hyped up the exhibits back then.
As I said before, the PCGS Coin Facts web site lists every BG variety and shows detailed pics for each BG variety. If you have one and it doesn't match one of those BG varieties shown on the PCGS Coin Facts site or it doesn't match any one shown in the Breen-Gillio reference book "Small Denomination California Gold Coins", it isn't real.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Perry, please note my second post, this isn't being suggested as an original California Gold Token, it is from Hart's Coins of the West which were issued around 1915. there is plenty of confusion (to me at least) with these because so many fakes were issued and with the Hart set they are dated differently, most being 1915 but apparently when they were hawking these at the PPIE there were non-standard tokens included.that means that tokens were made specifically for the "Set" and others were gathered together by Hart/Zerbe and foisted onto the unsuspecting public.
the seller of this token, OldWestGold, usually has interesting stuff like this for sale but some of what they offer strike me as very spurious in nature. I find them interesting but not something I'd collect or spend money on.
definitely not a California fractional Gold issue.
Nice!
beware ... as @keets and @PerryHall have indicated ... BG reference book 2nd edition is a must to dive into these opportunities !
Top 10 Cal Fractional Type Set
successful BST with Ankurj, BigAl, Bullsitter, CommemKing, DCW(7), Elmerfusterpuck, Joelewis, Mach1ne, Minuteman810430, Modcrewman, Nankraut, Nederveit2, Philographer(5), Realgator, Silverpop, SurfinxHI, TomB and Yorkshireman(3)
Very nice!
Didn't know any of this till I read it here.
Pete
The BG reference book is out of print and hard to find but the PCGS Coin Facts site has essentially the same information plus auction results and pop numbers for each BG variety.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Me either. This forum is great.
Somebody please find the thread about the 1932 souvenir tokens with bears on them. This is definitely much earlier than the circa 1960 crap that copied the bear motif from the souvenir tokens.
Interesting piece... Have not researched these, but they do frequently show up here on the forum. Cheers, RickO
I seem to remember seeing some small gold coins from Alaska in the denominations of one pinch and half a gold pinch. Anyone know about these?
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Real or not, I like the design.
Very cool looking coin/token
denominations of one pinch and half a gold pinch
the "Pinches" are from a little earlier, dated 1897-1898, and can be found in "So-Called Dollars" as HK-838 through HK-849. they were sold by the same M.E. Hart and probably were intended for the Alaska-Yukon Exposition of 1909.
I picked this up a couple years ago just for fun. They sure look great and I'd never seen a whole set in a capital holder.
Not great photos I know... but you get the idea.
Click on this link to see my ebay listings.
I love the reverse as well
FWIW, here is the 1932 Olympic token with bear thread:
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/comment/12080349#Comment_12080349
Definite difference in the style from the "1849" bear token, but it shows that there are some legitimate Bear tokens.
I would not beware. Meaning I see no red flags and if what the seller says is true Regarding the population, it would seem to be a good piece. Not sure if it’s a good price but they are expensive.
The seller does describe it as a Harts coin.
The one I have is from Utah but I haven’t weighed it and have no idea what denomination mine is.