The rarest and most unusual love token I have ever seen ...
BillJones
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Here is a love token that I thought about buying many years ago. It was made on an 1848 CAL. quarter eagle.
For those who don't know the story, here is a “Readers’ Digest” version. After gold was discovered in California in 1848, the military governor (This was before California became a state.) sent out a party of his men to collect samples from the goldfields. Future Civil War general William T. Sherman was part of that group. They gathered up 230 ounces of bullion and shipped it to the East Coast via Panama. The trip took from August 1848 to early December to complete. This was the first shipment of California gold to be received on the East Coast by a couple of days.
After the gold had been on display in the secretary of war’s office for a few days, it was decided that it should be shipped to Philadelphia Mint where it was coined into 1,389 quarter eagles. Each of these coins had a “CAL.” counterstamp punched on the reverse above the eagle. Today it is believed that about 150 of these pieces have survived. “Coin Factors” places the estimate at 162. Here is a nice example of the coin.
Comments
That is awesome!
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That is cool, one of a kind. Is it currently for sale somewhere? I would be curious to see what it sold for.
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No, it's not for sale so far as I know. I saw this piece back in the late 1980s. It was offered to me for $1,200, which was steep at the time ... at least I thought so. My interest was in getting a "CAL." that I could afford, given the high price of a nice one. I have spoken to the dealer who had it, and he knows who has it now. I don't know if or when it will be available.
Back then most all of the pictures I was taking were on slides so that's why the photos look funky. This is a picture taken from a slide by me.
excellent find
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That is very cool
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That's very neat! Hard to beat that.
Awesome, indeed.
@sayoyspecial has one done on a Bechtler.
When I visit NC in the fall, I plan to club him over the head and snatch that thing so I can put it on my hat.
Gadzooks!!!!
That would be a good one for the hat!
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That's a rare bird alright!
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That pc is still floating around the New England area, saw it a few months ago. Thought it was really neat as well, made what I thought was a fairly strong mid 4 figure offer that was politely refused.
Bill, I own an 1856-S over S Seated Quarter that was used as the host coin for a Love Token. aside from the choice of the coin is the fact that it had the carving on the obverse like yours, not typical at all. this is one of the peculiar things about the Hobby: the random choices that are made and result in the loss of scarce/rare coins.
non-collectors seem to have a knack for doing that and for saving random coins which are valuable. about a month ago we had an elderly woman walk in to look at some jewelry. she had 19 dimes that she wanted to sell and one of them was a low grade 1916-D!! needless to say she was quite happy.
it's too bad you didn't buy that Cal. but it's sort of cool to know it's out there. thanks for the story.
Wow, now that is very cool.
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The 1848-CAL is on my bucket list.
I think my bucket will remain empty.
Wow great coin and story...thanks for sharing!!
An amazing piece of history.
That is freaking amazing!
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Interesting! That's awesome.
Very interesting story.
Thanks for sharing it.
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I wonder what that coin's history is? The unusually heavy amount of wear suggests that it was carried or worn by someone for a very long time. A good fictional short story could probably be written about its travels over the past 169 years.
Me likey
cool, i like.
Good thing that they didn't use the other side for the inscription.
Then you'd be wondering if that 1848 was once a "Cal" and you'd be right but never know it.
Cool coin, almost as impressive as your slide image from almost 40 years ago, and that you can still trace the piece
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I still like my 1796 10c love token. :-)
I've seen elongated coins on several key dates, including an elongated 1885 Liberty nickel, elongated 1909-S, 1914-D, and 1931-S Lincoln cents...
Very cool, thanks for sharing.
Great historical piece Bill.... so interesting to be able to tie a coin to such history.... even as a love token it is significant. Cheers, RickO
Interesting. I have an elongated '14-D from the 1933 Chicago Worlds Fair.