California gold coinage facts for kids
California gold coinage refers to special coin-like items made by private companies during the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s. These weren't official money from the U.S. government. Instead, they were used because there wasn't enough regular money, especially silver coins, in California at the time.
These items are often called "coins," but they were actually more like ingots (metal bars) or tokens. Numismatists, who are experts in coins, usually call the ones that look like coins and have a value written on them "coins." The ones without a value are called "tokens." Many of these items were made outside California, but they still claimed to be from there.
Contents
Types of California Gold Pieces
During the Gold Rush, different kinds of gold pieces were made. They varied in how they looked, their value, and when they were produced.
Coin-Like Gold Ingots
From 1849 to 1856, some companies made large gold pieces that looked like coins. These were called "coin-like ingots." They came in values like $1, $5, $10, $20, $25, and even $50. Many famous gold assayers (people who test gold purity) made these. Some of these ingots even traveled to the east coast and were used there. Today, these early gold pieces are very rare and valuable.
Gold Tokens with a Stated Value
Smaller gold tokens with a value written on them were made from 1852 until 1883. These tokens came in values of $1, $0.50 (50 cents), and $0.25 (25 cents). You could find them in both round and octagonal (eight-sided) shapes.
At first, around 1852 and 1853, these tokens were actually used as money. This was because there was a shortage of official silver coins. However, people soon found them too small to handle easily. Even so, they became very popular as souvenirs. People could easily mail them to their families back home.
Over time, the amount of gold in these tokens slowly decreased. Early ones had about 80-90% of the correct gold weight for their value. But later tokens had less and less gold. Only a very rare type, called the "defiant eagle" issue, had the full weight of gold.
Gold Tokens Without a Stated Value
After 1869, a new type of gold token appeared: those without a value written on them. This change happened because of a law called the Coinage Act of 1864. This law made it illegal for private companies to create items meant to be used as official money.
The law was first enforced in 1869 in Boston and later in 1871 at Fort Leavenworth. Because of this, some companies stopped making tokens with values. New companies started making a mix of tokens, some with values and some without.
In 1883, the United States Secret Service visited the remaining manufacturers. Although no one was charged, all companies then switched to making only tokens without a stated value. These non-denominated tokens have been made continuously since then, often with dates from the Gold Rush era on them.
