Anyone know where these itty bitty 1849 "gold" coins come from?
Lakesammman
Posts: 17,384 ✭✭✭✭✭
Any info appreciated.
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I would have said Woolworth's, but their imitation California gold coins had a bear on them. **OOPS1 It does have a bear on it. Looks ike grizzly. **
I don't mean to be a smart Alec, but anytime you see “Eureka” on one of these pieces, it’s not a good sign. Also they need to have some sort of statement of value that ends in “Dol” or something like that.
I would say this is of a 1960s vintage. They are not the California gold fractional pieces. Here is an example of the real thing.
http://www.calgoldcoin.com/oldhtml/bear3.htm
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Andy, that site is great but does not show the OP's token. Note that the OP's "coin" the bear faces left. Completely different piece. I'd like to know where OP's token came from, too.
bob
I think that's a starving coyote, not a bear.
Test it for iridium. Native CA gold usually has a detectable proportion.
Wow, #RogerB. Iridium? Isn't that the stuff they look for when searching for remnants of the Asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs?
Cool to know!
bob
The word 'Eureka' on these doesn't necessarily mean bad, it just means different. It does preclude the piece from being considered a 'coin' and means that it is now considered a 'token' or 'charm'. M.E. Hart made and marketed quite a few tokens in his 'Coins of the Golden West' sets that were sold at the Panama Pacific Expo and subsequent fairs and expos. The better tokens though, did have a value on the reverse, like 1/4, 1/2, 1 or 'One'. Some of these featured the word 'Eureka'. Many can be seen in the Heritage archives.
Your piece does appear to be a little more modern, as Bill felt it was. Probably the 60's.