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Gold Rush Relics And Coins From California Part 4


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8 minutes ago, Cal_Cobra said:

.... are as rare as finding a gold coin in the West.....

 

On coastal CA (our zone) this is no doubt true.   I've only found 2 LC's (in CA), yet found 16 gold coins.   And this statistic of more GC's than LC's seem to hold up in other CA hunter's tallies.   It might go more even (or favor LC's ?) in the G.R. sites.  Since that was attracting a lot of people from back east to head to CA.  Not sure.  

 

Contrast to the east coast where guy can get 100 LC's before they EVER have a chance at a gold coin.

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You bet I am digging every repeatable tone on this site.  The ground seems hot, very chattery.  Still everything I’m finding are firsts for me.  The two gold coins are just crazy.   The large cent was a nice surprise.  Thanks for all the great replies. 

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Those territorial gold coins are rare no matter what.  Even in the situations where thousands were minted they lost their legal tender status and were cashed in and melted.  Very few (as in 10's to a few 100) survived.  You can see how many PCGS has graded to get an idea (it shows the number they've certified in each grade).

Crazy good finds!  I'm envious.

Oh, BTW, don't let those other California detectorists trade their large cents for your gold coins, regardless of how difficult they claim the large cents are to find there.  :biggrin:  (If they want to go the other direction, though...  🤔)

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The best find i have seen found by a member here since i have been looking.The  private mint  gold coin club must be the toughest to get in.I think in Charles Garrett coin hunting book he said a man found one  at a horse track in   Washington  state worth   250,000 way back then(30 years plus).I can see Cal Cobra finding one since he has a knack for finding valuable coins.

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7 minutes ago, Dances With Doves said:

The best find i have seen found by a member here since i have been looking.The  private mint  gold coin club must be the toughest to get in.I think in Charles Garrett coin hunting book he said a man found one  at a horse track in   Washington  state worth   250,000 way back then(30 years plus).I can see Cal Cobra finding one since he has a knack for finding valuable coins.

Nope.  Not on my watch anyhow.  Cal Cobra knows it's my turn now, to find the next gold coin between us.   Right Brian ? 🤣

 

I know 3 guys that found them :  Here's one of them :  

https://coins.ha.com/itm/territorial-gold/1851-5-shultz-and-co-five-dollar-ms62-ngc-k-1-r7/a/1204-5439.s

 

Another private mint CA gold coin was found near Salinas (worth only about $3k).  And another private mint gold coin found at a park turf demolition in Santa Rosa years ago (not a super rare one, so perhaps $5k to $7k ?).  Strangely, 2 identical private mint gold coins came from that Santa Rosa demolition scrape, but I didn't know the other hunter.

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You bet I am digging every repeatable tone on this site.  The ground seems hot, very chattery.  Still everything I’m finding are firsts for me.  The two gold coins are just crazy.   The large cent was a nice surprise.  Thanks for all the great replies. 

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Oops duplicate post.  So should I have them graded and packaged?  What is the best way to do this?  I have never found anything worth this much.  

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1 hour ago, CVISChris said:

Oops duplicate post.  So should I have them graded and packaged?  What is the best way to do this?  I have never found anything worth this much.  

There's no need to slab or have them graded, if you are just keeping them for your own collection.  But if you want to have the "stellar" seal of merit (even if only in your own collection), then yes:  You can send off that private mint gold coin for slabbing.   There's coin dealers that can walk you through that process (and their memberships with the grading agencies afford them the grading hoops to jump through. Eg.: requires membership, shipping, a cost per coin that a dealer gets at a discount, vs a new member with only a single coin-to-grade, etc...).

 

Google PCGS (that's one of the two grading agencies), and I'm sure the instruction info. is there.   But unless you intend to do a lot of repeat business with them, then a singular grade/slab, with the cost of initial membership, etc..., you might be better off just entrusting it to a coin-collector, who already wheels/deals in these deals.  

 

Once they've given it a verified grade, then you are golden if you ever go to sell.  No one can banter you down on their opinion of grade, blah blah.  And even if you don't sell, you'll have the satisfaction of now knowing for-sure that it's worth such & such.

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Thanks Tom!  I will hold off for now.  Maybe I’ll find more soon?!?  One can hope.  

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11 minutes ago, CVISChris said:

.... Maybe I’ll find more soon?!?  ....  

If you do, you're going to make several of us CA guys sick.   We're going to come plant a GPS device on your vehicle.   (Pay no attention to the suspicious person you saw in your driveway last night ! 😝 )

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