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The 1848 CAL. $2.50 Gold … The first U.S. commemorative coin?
BillJones
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My big purchase at the Baltimore coin show was this 1848 quarter eagle in PCGS AU-55. This coin had been on my list for several months.
Gold was discovered in California in January of 1848. A few months later, probably 80% of the adult male population was engaged in finding gold. Colonel Richard B. Mason, who was the military governor of California, led an exposition of soldiers (including future Civil War Union General, William T. Sherman) to the California goldfields, which were east of San Francisco, in July 1848. There he gathered 13 samples of gold from the various sites. To that he added an “oyster can” full of gold that had been taken in by the San Francisco Customs House. In August sent one of his lieutenants to Washington with a tea caddy full of gold that weighed about 231 ounces.
Upon the arrival of gold in Washington, Secretary of War, William Marcy, forwarded the gold, less one pound, to the Philadelphia mint. His instructions were to use the gold to make one or two small gold bars, two medals for Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, and some quarter eagles with a distinguishing mark. The two gold medals were later made from another gold deposit, but this first California gold deposit to the Philadelphia mint was used to make the gold bars and an estimated 1,389, 1848 CAL. quarter eagles.
A letter from Mint Director Patterson confirmed that the California gold was used to make the quarter eagles and that those coins were marked with the CAL. counterstamp on the revere. As such these coins commemorated the first shipment of California gold to a United States mint, and they were made from gold included in that shipment. No other U.S. commemorative coin can be as closely associated with the event that it marks.
That’s the “Readers Digest” version of the story. I’ll expand it if there is interest.
Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
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In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Greg
https://greatcollections.com/Collections/1120/The-Keyman64-Mercury-Dime-Collection/2024-07-07
I guess I could post it here, but it goes on for two pages.
<< <i>I've already written an article for my local club that I'm going publish in the club meeting notice in the coming months.
I guess I could post it here, but it goes on for two pages. >>
People like me will read it. Others will quickly scroll past it. No harm will come from it in my opinion....or maybe someone will start a thread about their hate for long educational posts, who knows?
https://greatcollections.com/Collections/1120/The-Keyman64-Mercury-Dime-Collection/2024-07-07
The 1848 CAL Quarter Eagle
America’s First Commemorative Coin
By Bill Jones
In January of 1848 James Marshall, who was an employee of John Sutter, discovered gold in the race of a sawmill that on was on Sutter’s property. The men soon discovered additional gold deposits further upstream, and before long it was found that there were many gold deposits in the area. Sutter and his men tried to keep their discovery a secret, but that proved to be impossible. By spring dozens of prospectors were looking for gold with tools that ranged from a simple metal pan to a primitive device called a cradle.
In Monterey, California Colonel Richard B. Mason, who was the military governor of the soon to be U.S. territory, viewed the developments with concern and interest. “Gold fever” had prompted many of the enlisted men in his unit to desert their posts and head for the gold fields in search of wealth. In addition men who had been engaged in almost every profession from farming to office clerk had left their jobs “to strike it rich.” Mason decided that the time had come to report the news of the California bonanza to his superiors and to provide them with some physical evidence of the gold strike.
In July Mason and his chief aid, Lieutenant William Sherman, selected four good soldiers and some other support personnel and set out for the Sacramento Valley. Over the following weeks they purchased 13 samples of gold from the miners in the area and carefully marked on a map where those samples had been obtained. In August Mason combined those samples, along with an “oyster can” full of gold that Mason purchased from the San Francisco Custom House for the depressed price of $10 an ounce. He packed the entire deposit into a tea caddy.
Mason selected Lieutenant Lucien Loeser to take the box, which contained 230 ounces of gold, to Washington, DC, and asked Lieutenant Sherman to write a report about the California discoveries. Sixteen years later Lieutenant William T. Sherman, by then a Union general, would emblazon his name into the history books with his famous or for some infamous March to the Sea.
Lieutenant Loeser set out on his journey on August 30. The first leg of Loeser’s trip took him to Payta, Peru. There he boarded another ship that took him to Panama where he crossed over land to board a ship on the Atlantic side. From there he steamed to Kingston, Jamaica where he embarked on another ship to New Orleans, Louisiana. From there he took the final leg of his journey to Washington, DC. Loeser arrived in Washington on December 7.
Two days earlier, President James K. Polk had announced in his annual message to Congress that, “Recent discoveries render probable that these (gold) mines are more extensive and valuable than was anticipated.” This statement combined with the display of a box of gold Secretary of War, W.L. Marcy’s, office set off a frenzy of interest.
War Secretary Marcy sent a letter to Mint Director R. M. Patterson in which he asked to the director to convert the almost 231 ounces of gold into two gold medals that were to be awarded to Mexican War heroes, Generals Zackary Taylor and Winfield Scott, one or two small gold bars, and some quarter eagles with a distinguishing mark. Marcy anticipated that some people would like to have a sample from the first gold shipment from California that was delivered to the Philadelphia mint. He anticipated that citizens would be willing to trade an ordinary piece of gold to obtain the quarter eagles at face value. As it happened a second gold shipment from California arrived a short time after Lieutenant Loeser delivered his chest. Gold from that second shipment would be used to produce the two medals that would be awarded to Taylor and Scott.
In the mean time the Philadelphia mint personnel began their assignment. As was quite often the case the California gold contained silver that had to be parted from the body of the ore. After that the gold was alloyed with copper, formed into ingots and rolled into sheets from which the planchets were cut. After the coins were struck, there was one more step. Using the obverse coin die as an anvil, each coin was counterstamped with the letters “CAL.” above the eagle on the reverse. The use of the obverse die as an anvil prevented the flat spot that would have resulted had the counterstamp been applied on a flat surface.
As the year came to a close, Secretary Marcy was becoming impatient with the time it was taking to produce the quarter eagles. He sent his chief clerk, Archibald Campbell to Philadelphia to investigate the situation. Marcy stated that if quarters were ready, the mint personnel could hand them over to Campbell. Campbell returned to Washington empty handed.
On January 5, 1849 Mint Director Patterson sent Secretary Marcy a letter that would confirm the importance of the 1848 CAL. quarter eagles for generations of coin collectors. Patterson stated that during the normal course of business the mint would have supplied the quarter eagles to a depositor as soon as the facility received the gold. In this case, however, March had requested that the same gold that had been deposited be used in the coins. This request had created the delay. The need to part the silver from the gold and apply the CAL. counterstamp had prolonged the process. At long last the coins were ready for delivery.
Although the mint did not record the mintage for the 1848 CAL. gold coins, it has been estimated from the available evidence 1,389 pieces were produced. Although a small number of the coins were saved, the vast majority of them went into circulation. It has been estimated that less than 200, perhaps no more than 160, of these coins survive today. Among that group less than 40 could graded Mint State.
Today the 1848 CAL. quarter eagle is one of the most desired of U.S. coins. Many numismatists view it as the first United States commemorative coin because it marked the receipt of the first shipments of gold from California to a United States mint. In addition the coin does not just commemorate that event; it is made from the actual gold that was shipped to the mint. No other U.S. commemorative coin has such a close of a relationship to the event that it marks.
I am hard-pressed to think of another coin that betters it with respect to historical significance.
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
https://greatcollections.com/Collections/1120/The-Keyman64-Mercury-Dime-Collection/2024-07-07
Awesome example of that coin. Great article. I have heard that coin described as the first commemorative.
JH
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Excellent write-up, and superb coin!
Thank you for sharing both.
<< <i>If some body or some entity did not make a profit from the issue of this coin should it really be considered a member of the commemorative coin series?
JH >>
By definition, yes...by modern standards, maybe not. It does commemorate an event in history within the United States. Just my take on it.
https://greatcollections.com/Collections/1120/The-Keyman64-Mercury-Dime-Collection/2024-07-07
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
great coin by all accounts though.
<< <i>i think it's a great coin but don't agree with the premise that it's a Commemorative Coin, only one that's counterstamped to signify the origin of the metal used to produce it. in that regard it is similar(albeit much more significant) than any coin struck from Comstock Lode Silver and marked with a CC. from my perspective a true Commemorative Coin Issue has a design which somehow illustrates the event it commemorates. following the line of thinking with this CAL. issue, don't we know the first "Coins" struck on a steam press and wouldn't they be a commemorative??
great coin by all accounts though. >>
Yes, the fact that it does not have a special design is the biggest argument against classifying it as a commemorative coin. Still a lot of authorities like Q. David Bowers, Jeff Garrett and the guys at Coin Facts have labeled it as such. Given the time frame there was for the mint to strike a coin that commemorated the first receipt of California gold, this was the best they could have done.
The picture I have posted of this is accurate except for the fact the fields display about 50% of the mint luster. I’ve not been able to capture that in my photographic attempts. This piece was sold at the August ANA Platinum night, and the picture there does not match up with mine with respect to the general look. But it is the same coin when you compare the markers and the PCGS serial number. I just present this as caution to those who try to use auction pictures as guide when you bid on expensive items.
Do you have any ideas on survival above VF for this coin?
Great coin! And I agree it's the first commem. It's also way up there on my list of dream coins.
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This post is a gem.
The entertainment can never be overdressed....except in burlesque
I would do it but HA is blocked at work.
<< <i>If someone has the time, there's a Cal $2.5 that sold at FUN 2011 by HA that has the "flat spot" by the date from punching the Cal. into the reverse. Said to have been struck outside the obverse die.
I would do it but HA is blocked at work.
I believe that there are two different pieces known that were counterstamped with the obverse of the coin not properly seated into the design in the obverse die on the workbench, causing what looks like extreme "machine doubling" of the date. There may be others.
Great example of this historical coin.
I am leaning against calling it "the first commemorative U.S. coin" because no special design was used. Had they sunk the "CAL." into the die I would lean the other way. However, I have no serious argument with people who call it one way or the other.
Serious question: If the 1848 "CAL." $2-1/2's are commemoratives because of the added lettering, what about the twelve 1921-D dollars engraved with commemorative inscriptions giving the order number in which they were struck?
TD
How many counterfeit Cal's (ie: Cal. added at a later date) have you seen with that obverse characteristic? Are they hard to tell apart??
TD
<< <i>Serious question: If the 1848 "CAL." $2-1/2's are commemoratives because of the added lettering, what about the twelve 1921-D dollars engraved with commemorative inscriptions giving the order number in which they were struck?
TD >>
Good question that I will take one step further. What about the 1879-O proof Morgan dollars?
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
<< <i>
<< <i>Serious question: If the 1848 "CAL." $2-1/2's are commemoratives because of the added lettering, what about the twelve 1921-D dollars engraved with commemorative inscriptions giving the order number in which they were struck?
TD >>
Good question that I will take one step further. What about the 1879-O proof Morgan dollars? >>
Are they engraved with a commemorative inscription? If not, they are not comparable.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
<< <i>Nice coin. I am still looking for one with a hole in it. >>
Here is one with a hole that is probably the "poorest known." The reverse of this piece grades in Good, and it has a hole. The obverse is a love token that has been scraped bare and with initials engraved into it.
The owner of this piece allowed me to hold for period of time many years ago in hopes that I would buy it. The idea that the gold it contained was from the shipment that came from California was intriguing, but I could not bring myself to pay $1,200 for something that was really more of a “relic” than a coin.
The picture looks funny because I copied it from a slide that I took of the piece at the time.
<< <i>Bill,
Do you have any ideas on survival above VF for this coin? >>
The best data I can find for this question is from the PCGS and NGC POP reports. According to those, PCGS has graded six 1848 CAL. quarter eagles in VF, two each for the VF-25, 30 and 35 grades. NGC has only graded one piece in VF. From that I would say the coin is rare in VF, and rare in the low grades overall. PCGS has graded only three pieces below VF, and NGC has not graded any pieces below VF.
There could still be some raw ones out there, but the incentive to get these coins graded, given the concerns about counterfeits, is strong.