1855/4 25c California Fractional Gold Quarter-Octagonal BG-106 NGC MS 65 r.3

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1855/4 25c California Fractional Gold Quarter-Octagonal BG-106 NGC MS 65 r.3 Average Weight : .28g Average Fineness : .880 Average Diameter: 9.2mm Geometry: Octagonal Breen-Gillio Number: 106 Breen-Gillio Rarity: 3 Breen-Gillio Est. Survivors: 201-500 Breen-Gillio Period: OneCoiner: Frontier, Deviercy & Co. Location: San Francisco This beautiful example of genuine California Gold is from Die State I, which is distinguished by the mark on Liberty's cheek . This coin is certified MS 65 by NGC. I am certain it will be a great addition to your collection. A Guide to California Gold Introduction: Although the eBay title for this coin includes the word "Fractional", California Fractional Gold is technically incorrect since $1 coins are obviously not fractional. And Territorial Gold is also a misnomer since California never was a territory of the US--it went straight from Republic of California to State of California.In any case, I estimate a grand total of only 18,730 California Gold pieces exist in all types, denominations and grades. I arrived at this shockingly low number by assuming the high end of the estimated survivors for each type and summing these numbers to produce the total.This makes any genuine California Gold piece among the scarcest of any US coins. Were it not for the lack of identification and pricing data available to collectors, I believe these rare and interesting coins would be priced much higher. And if the Red Book ever decides to provide more detail, prices will zoom. However, there is current pricing information available at PCGS: California Fractional Gold (1852-1876) As it is, many California Gold pieces are increasing in value and the highest grades and the rarest examples are commanding tens of thousands of dollars. And even the most damaged, lowest grade, common type--providing it is genuine--is worth at least $75.The key word here is genuine. There are many modern tokens offered for sale that do not have much numismatic value, although they may satisfy the desire for a souvenir. These modern tokens usually have gilding, gold plating or no gold whatsoever and are massed produced to this day to satisfy the demand for "gold" pieces. So, if you want a genuine example of California Gold, it's best to buy one that has been certified by one of the approved third party grading services such as PCGS or NGC. Breen-Gillio: California Gold is cataloged in a reference work by Walter Breen and Ronald J. Gillio entitled California Pioneer Fractional Gold, Historic Gold Rush Small Change 1852-1857 and Suppressed Jewelers' Issues 1858-1882 . This work by Breen-Gillio is used to classify California Gold and the numbering system introduced by the authors has been adopted by collectors and dealers everywhere. This numbering system is referred to as BG-nnnn where n is a three to four digit catalog reference to a specific type of California Gold coin.If you can find a copy of this out of print Breen-Gillio reference, expect to pay $300-$400 for a new and $200-$300 for a good used copy of the second edition. A first edition, although rare, is not quite as desirable and may fetch $100 used. Periods: Breen-Gillio have divided California Gold into three periods as show below. Period One = BG-101 to BG-607 Period Two = BG-701 to BG-1208 Period Three = BG-1301 to BG-1330 Generally, Period One pieces actually circulated and were intended to fulfill the demand for small change in the early days of California when the mints and their coins were on the other side of the continent and many weeks or months were required to travel back and forth.This created a chronic shortage of small change and resulted in situations where a saloon keeper might hire a bartender not for his ability to pour whiskey, but because he had massive hands. This was because a drink would cost a "pinch" of gold and the bartenders with the largest hands could take quite a pinch thus maximizing the owner's profits.Period Two pieces were p... read more

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