Young Swift $50 gold slugs

kiyote · January 14, 2018 12:19PM

I’ve never heard of the guy or these $50 coins. It’s a good story though!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sfgate.com/bayarea/amp/bay-area-settler-forgot-where-he-buried-gold-1850s-12488116.php

Zoins · January 14, 2018 12:52PM

The article is about Granville Perry Swift. It seems "Young Swift" in the article just means he was young in age.

It says his coins were minted into octagonal slugs with a special mark. Anyone know what his coins look like?

According to an 1875 story in the Sonoma Democrat, Swift left Bidwell's Bar with over half a million dollars in gold. He brought it to San Francisco and had it minted into octagonal slugs, $50 each, with a special mark designating them as Swift's.
Loaded down with gold — and without a banking system to receive it — Swift decided to start burying his haul around the Bay Area, primarily in the Sonoma area. The only problem was, he was very bad at remembering where he'd hidden it all. Although Swift died in 1875, the secret died long before then, forgotten by the scatter-brained settler.
Over time, some of the gold was found. In 1903, a worker on a ranch in Sonoma County dug up $7,000 in Swift's $50 slugs. A year later, $30,000 in gold was pulled from a chimney hiding place on Swift's old ranch near present-day Sears Point.

Here's the Wikipedia article on Granville:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_P._Swift

RogerB · January 14, 2018 1:03PM

Pleasant fiction.

ricko · January 15, 2018 9:24AM

Interesting story. I have long been interested in - and studied - gold coins. I have never seen an example of these 'special' coins referenced in the article. Seems someone along the way would have noticed an octagonal coin with special markings. Cheers, RickO

Mark · January 15, 2018 2:43PM

Frankly, I'm betting that the "special mark" is an Omega symbol, so I think Mr. Bonanno had something to do with these coins.

Regulated · January 15, 2018 9:58PM

I'm unfamiliar with any sort of a consistent, non-standard mark found anywhere on any slugs. Sounds like a big fish story to me.

WillieBoyd2 · January 15, 2018 10:48PM

It was featured on a 1966 "Gunsmoke" television program episode titled "Treasure of John Walking Fox".

The coin:

The finder:

Live long and prosper.

Young Swift $50 gold slugs

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