hi im new i need advice

kels

hi i have a 1865 califonia gold coin on the front it has a indian head on the back a wreath inside the wreath it says califonia gold and one star in the middle ..i looked all over on line i cant find it or how much it is worth if anything ..for some reason i cant take a photo of it they all come out black ..if any one can help . thank you ...

prooflike

Usually the cal gold with stars or bears are replicas.

nwcs

Welcome to the forum! I hope you stick around 'cause there is a lot of great info here. Are you using a digital camera?

Russ

Does it look anything like one of these?

Russ, NCNE

kels

yes i have a digital camera ...the coin is round i have ,,,,,,i had one that looks like that its in a box some place here thank you ...

RLinn

Welcome to the forum, Kels. Are you collecting anything in particular, or did you just stop by for one time advice. If you collect coins, I hope you'll stay around awhile and share a little about your interests.

Russ

<< <i>the coin is round i have ,,,,,, >>



kels,

Scroll down on the page I linked above. It's a different page than the first one, and has round ones that sound just like you described.

Russ, NCNE

nwcs

Try shining the light directly onto the coin and snapping the pic. Should be OK at taking that angle. There are a lot of replicas out there for california gold.

Here are some real ones... Link

nwcs

Here is another link about the bear california golds and their counterfeits.

nwcs

Is yours like this one (from my second link I posted):



The page indicates: "VERY COMMON gold plated brass (or maybe just really bright brass?) worth $2-10 each"

crito

here's another fake... rare repunched L in GOLD variety (just kidding), at least it sorta looks like an octagonal small denom

kels

the front of the round coin looks almost the same .i did see this coin tho but with a group ! there is a little mint mark above the date but i need a magnifing glass to see it ..

CarlWohlforth

Of course there are some real California gold pieces. There are many kinds.

A poster here uses the name CalGold and knows all about them. I don't have any cool links but do have an image of one of mine.

Have fun!

relayer

Kels-

There are many varieties of the California Gold coins. First they were minted from the raw gold to help with the shortage of gold coins in California.

First you should check the section of the Redbook on them and see if you can match yours up to any of the examples. (Round vs. octogon / Small heads etc). I don't have mine here at work (but why not - I'm not working?)

There is also a page on the history of the coin there which is interesting.

As was pointed out, the ones with the bears on the back are replicas.

I would first try looking in the Redbook and then take it into a local coin shop. My guess is they'll offer anywhere from $40 - $100. If you can get a good scan, you can list it on ebay, put a reserve price on it and see what the market thinks.

Also if you bought it on eBay, chances are it's a fake. I know of at least one seller "tokenperson" that was buying replica sets with 5 coins for $10 and then selling them on ebay for $30-$50 each. Nice guy.

kels

thank you i will look in red book ..and this coin dose not have a bear on it at all .i never got any thing off ebay .....my husband had this since he was a boy he got it from his great granfather ....thank you ! i dont usaly look things like this up ! but it was fun in a way.. i do have old coins and a very large looks like a penny !1884 ..1921 silver dollar ! some buffalo nickes...dimes wheat pennys ...but i really collect cameras i have a rare kodak one of the frist ..thanks oh ! this is not my work i do non profit work here is one of my websites kelsplace.50megs.com i got lots of theses and working on one now thank you for all your help if this is a real coin i will be able to do alot with it ..