Tricky Dates

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Which came first, the 1848 CAL. quarter eagle (gold $2½) or the 1849 Mormon eagle (gold $10)? If this sounds like it must be a trick question, you’re right: the story of the first two coins of the California Gold Rush turns out to be just a little more complicated than the dates on the faces of these famous gold rarities would suggest. 

The California Gold Rush

As you may know, the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill on January 24, 1848, set off the California Gold Rush. Although foreman James Marshall is generally credited with its discovery, pieces of the yellow metal were first seen by a couple of anonymous workers in the tailrace of a sawmill on the American River. Given that the vast majority of workers at Sutter’s Mill in 1848 were Mormon, it is quite likely that those workers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In fact, the earliest account of the discovery of gold is in the diary of Mormon Henry Bigler, who recorded:

Sun Monday 24^th This day some kind of mettle discove was found in the tail race that looks like goald first discovered by James Martial, the boss of the mill. 

Sunday 30^th clear + has been all the last week our metal has been tride and prooves to be goald it is thought to be rich we have pict up more than a hundred dollars worth last week.

Following the discovery of gold, the workers at Sutter’s Mill were allowed to prospect in exchange for a cut of their findings. By autumn of 1848, members of the Mormon Church began to make their way to Salt Lake City carrying considerable amounts of gold dust and nuggets. This gold was sealed into $1 to $20 envelopes to facilitate trade at Salt Lake City, but within months, plans to strike coins had begun. On November 15, Brigham Young wrote, “The coined money, I have not now on hand, but we are preparing to put the gold dust into coin without alloy, which if your dispose to take, you can have out the value.”

The Deseret Mint and U.S. Mint Gold

Work on what would be known as the Deseret Mint began at once, and on December 10, 1848, the newly established mint began taking deposits of gold dust and nuggets, delivering the first 25 Mormon gold eagles two days later. On December 19, another 21 Mormon $10s were struck before the mint’s crucible shattered, putting the entire project on hold for nine months, while the church waited for its replacement from the East Coast.

In the meantime, a package containing $3,910.10 in California dust and nuggets was shipped to the U.S. Secretary of War William L. Marcy by California Military Governor Richard Mason. It arrived at the Philadelphia Mint on December 15, where the process of refining and alloying it began.

It was decided that the California gold would be used to create a pair of gold medals for Mexican-American War heroes General Zachary Taylor and General Winfield Scott. Some of the balance of the gold would also be used to strike quarter eagles dated 1848 and countermarked with “CAL.,” commemorating the arrival of gold from the United States’ newest holding.

Quarter Eagle Delays

In late December, War Secretary Marcy sent his chief clerk, Archibald Campbell, to Philadelphia to collect some of the new quarter eagles, but the coins were not yet struck, and Campbell returned to Washington empty-handed. Marcy’s impatience elicited a letter from Mint Director Robert Patterson, dated January 5, 1849, explaining that refining and alloying California gold and creating the “CAL.” counterstamp was time-consuming. As a consequence, the quarter eagles were only then—in January 1849—ready for delivery.

So, as it turns out, the 1849-dated Mormon $10s were delivered in December 1848, while the first 1848-dated CAL. quarter eagles were not delivered until January 5, 1849. Who knew that numismatic history could be so counterintuitive?