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California Fractional Gold Coins
by Donald H. Kagin
Throughout the early years of the California
gold rush there was a constant need for coinage
to satisfy the commercial needs of a booming
community being based on gold dust. While many
firms issued coins from $2 1/2 to $50
denominations, there was still a need for coins
of smaller denominations.
Foreign silver coins were imported and passed as
change in the West. But this trade-with so many
varieties of coins-was confusing, and many of
these pieces were intrinsically worth less than
their trading value. When the United States
branch mint in San Francisco finally was
established in 1854, only 15,000 gold $1 pieces
were coined, with no $1 denominations being
issued the following year. During 1855, only
$150,000 in United States small denomination
silver coins were issued in California, with
most being hoarded or exported. The need for
smaller fractional denominations of gold coins
may have been met by hundreds of varieties of
small gold pieces in quarter, half, and dollar
sizes.
Over 450 varieties are known to exist, some
undated but most bearing dates between 1852 and
1882. Most are anonymous or identified only by
initials, but research over the years has made
it possible to attribute the majority of the
issues to manufacturing jewelers in San
Francisco, California and Leavenworth, Kansas;
some may have been made in New York and New
Orleans.
The San Francisco firms included Nouzillet &
Routhier (Antoine Louis Nouzillet and Isadore
Routhier), NR; Louis Nouzillet alone, N;
Frontier & Deviercy (Pierre Frontier and Eugene
Deviercy), FD; Pierre Frontier alone and with
Augustus Bellemere, no mark; Gaime, Guillemot &
Co., GG (their factory was located in New York,
but perhaps the pieces with their initials were
made for them by Frontier & Diviercy); Robert B.
Gray & Co., G; California Jewelry Co. (Levison
Bros.), L and no mark; and Herman J. Brand
(1882), no mark. M. Deriberpie, an engraver,
apparently cut dies for Nouzillet & Routhier;
his work is signed DERIB,DERI, or D. Hershfield
& Mitchell (Reuben N. Hershfield and Noah
Mitchell) of Leavenworth, Kansas (pieces signed
H-1871) is the only maker outside California
identified so far. It has been thought by some
that Ferdinand Gruner and Albert Kuner engraved
some of the varieties. This is possible, though
no pieces can be assigned to them at this time.
Most of the fractional coins were made by the
hammer method, like the Pacific Company issues.
This was a process of striking where the bottom
die was placed on a block, a coin blank was laid
upon it, and the top die upon the blank; this
top die was then struck by a sledgehammer. Blows
of varying intensity would cause potions of one
side or edge to be more weakly struck than
another. Many varieties are very crude in
design. Other pieces were holed and strung on
gold or copper wires to prevent loss or used for
watch fobs, etc.
These small pieces ranged in fineness from 22
carats (24 being pure gold) to 14 carats or 583
thousandths fine. All contain substantially less
gold than their face value, making them a form
of token. The questions of how much – if any –
circulation they saw has been for some time, and
remains still, a point of controversy. One
viewpoint holds that some of these pieces
circulated as coins in the 1850’s, with the
dollars being extensively used into the late
1850’s, 1860’s and 1870’s, as few regular
official dollars were issued until then. The
author doubts that any saw circulation, and
believes that they were made purely for souvenir
purposes. Other students of the series have
concluded that the earliest issues (those from
1852 through 1856) were intended for actual
circulation and saw some usage at first, while
later issues were sold as jewelry.
Prices skyrocketed in California at the
beginning of the Gold Rush and remained high for
years thereafter. Nothing could be purchases for
less than 12 ½ cents, and very little for less
than a quarter. The influx of fortune-seekers
from all over the world brought a motley
assortment of small change into circulation,
which passed by size and not instrinsic value.
Presumably conditions were ripe for the
introduction of underweight private gold coins
in denominations of 25 cents, 50 cents, and one
dollar. The earliest known mention of such
pieces is an article appearing in the Alta
California of August 25, 1852 (reprinted from
the New Orleans Picayune):
We were shown this morning a gold half dollar,
California money, which
is so much like the United States gold dollar
piece, that the best judges
would be completely deceived at a first glance.
The half dollar is lighter
in color, and somewhat smaller in diameter, than
the dollar. They are of
a private issue, and have stamped on them,
“Half-Dollar, California Gold,
1852.”
How much significance can be placed upon the
reference to this item as “California money”
remains a point of controversy.
By the end of 1853 a number of other such pieces
had appeared, completing the series of the three
denominations in both round and octagonal
shapes. A “time capsule” of monetary conditions
at this time is provided by the wreck of the
Steamer Winfield Scott. This ship was operated
by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to carry
passengers and cargo between San Francisco and
Panama. On December 1, 1853, she left San
Francisco bound for Panama with about 400
passengers and $884,861.50 in treasure. Two days
out she was caught in a storm and ran aground 30
miles west of Santa Barbara. The passengers and
most of the treasure were rescued. What was left
behind were mainly items of small value
abandoned by the passengers in their haste to
flee the ship.
In 1965 a California scuba diver discovered the
wreck of the Winfield Scott and began salvaging
it on weekends. Other divers visited the site
also over a period of years extending into the
early 1970’s. From articles they have written
and a record kept by the dealer who purchased
many of the coins found, the following picture
has emerged:
A total of 59 coins were recovered, of which 33
were private California gold $ ¼ to $10 (56% of
the total); thirty-two $1 coins were found, 17
of them California gold (53% of the total).
There were also seven or more gold nuggets.
Every shape and denomination of small California
gold except round $1 pieces was recovered. This
would appear to indicate that fractional
California gold either formed a substantial part
of the small change in circulation in San
Francisco in late 1853, or was being shipped
East as souvenirs. Many pieces of this era are
frequently found in circulated condition or with
bagmarks, but a large proportion are in high
grade.
Additional questions can be raised concerning
the circulation of these pieces:
There is no period California reference yet
known stating that these coins circulated,
although the existence in California of American
and foreign fractional silver coins was
occasionally mentioned.
1. On these issues there are no initials or
other marks indicating minting by any of the
major private gold coiners, e.g., Moffat & Co.
or Kellogg & Co., leading one to believe that
they did not produce any of these fractional
gold pieces. Since these firms were already in
the business of issuing coins it would have been
relatively easy for them to strike these smaller
pieces. It is conceivable that they did not
choose to issue the fractional coins since they
would have yielded smaller profits on a per coin
basis than the higher denomination coins. It
might also have been that there was thought to
be no need for fractional gold coins in
California at that time.
2. All of these pieces, especially those dated
after 1860, are underweight, and many of them
are very deficient in intrinsic value. With all
the publicity against the larger denomination
pieces being overvalued, way is there not a
single reference to these, unless they were
issued as souvenirs and not for circulation.
3. By the late 1850’s the chaotic currency
situation in California had changed completely.
Silver quarters and half dollars had been issued
in such quantity by the new San Francisco Mint
that they actually sold at a discount from face
value from 1858 or 1859 until 1873. When the
manufacture of small California gold pieces was
resumed in 1859 after a hiatus of two years, it
is clear that they were not intended for
circulation. These later pieces are thinner and
lighter than the early issues and are normally
found in extremely fine condition, or better.
Many prooflike pieces exist, further evidence
that currency use was not expected The Private
Coinage Law of 1864 prohibited the manufacture
of all private gold coins intended for use as
current money, but was ignored by the makers of
fractional gold pieces, evidently in the belief
that their products were not coins.
But if the later-made pieces were not coins,
what were they? Souvenirs of California,
certainly; the U. S. Mint Cabinet’s account book
for November 25, 1862, calls them “California
pocket-pieces.” Hershfield & Mitchell of
Leavenworth, Kansas, makers in 1871 only,
described their products as “tokens or charms”
and “trinkets.” (They were arrested anyway,
charged with violating the Private Coinage Law
of 1864. The U. S. Mint assayed their half
dollar and found it to have a value of just 17
cents.) F. C. Suhr, a jeweler in San Bernardino,
California, told the Secret Service in 1883 that
the gold 25cent and 50cent pieces he sold were
used “as bangles. His female customers would
purchase them, he would drill a hole through
them and attach them to the bracelets or
necklaces with a short chain.”
The final suppression of fractional gold coins
came in 1883, when Col. Henry Finnegass, Chief
Operative, San Francisco District, U. S. Secret
Service, received a letter from his superior –
James J. Brooks, Chief, U. S. Secret Service.
This letter, dated February 20, 1883, complained
that Frederick Linde, a Los Angeles jeweler,
“has been furnishing a Mr. Kunz of Wellington,
Ohio, with large quantities of 25 cent and 50
cent pieces.” Col. Finnegass set out for Los
Angeles on March 4 to investigate. He arrived
March 5 and went straight to Linde’s store,
where he saw a number of fractional gold coins
in the show window. Mr. Linde himself was out,
but a clerk sold him a set of one 50 cent and
one 25 cent for 75 cents. Later Col. Finnegass
returned, identified himself and his mission to
Linde, who by then was badly scared, and seized
Linde’s whole stock of the pieces.
Following this action Col. Finnegass seized
“bangles” from several other jewelers in
California. On March 15 he discussed prosecution
of these persons with United States Attorney
Hilborn and Carrol Cook, his assistant. Mr.
Hilborn was not quite certain that an offense
had been committed, but after urging by Reneges,
agreed to refer the matter to the Attorney
General of the United States for an opinion.
Before a reply could be received, Col. Finnegass
visited the establishment of H. J. Brand,
Manufacturing Jeweler, 230 Kearny Street, San
Francisco, by then apparently the only remaining
maker of such items. As a result of this visit,
Brand promised “that he would not hereafter
manufacture the pieces.” On Monday, April 16,
authority was received from Washington in the
form of a letter signed by J. H. Robinson,
Acting Solicitor of the Treasury, confirming
Col. Finnegass’s position. By June 9, 1883, Col.
Finnegass was able to write to jeweler Linde
that he had entirely suppressed the trade in
fractional gold coins in California, and added,
“I shall do all in my power to break up the
traffic in those coins.” Though very effective,
Col. Finnegass’s zealousness in this regard is
hard to understand, since he himself officially
reported that “I have not heard of a single
instance in which those pieces have been sold or
passed as coins on this coast either without or
within the limits of my District.”! |