California Gold Coins v. Souvenir Tokens

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California Gold Coins, also known as pioneer gold, are among the most sought-after Americana coins minted during the Wild West pioneer era. Unfortunately for collectors, online auctions often are flooded with modern replicas and tokens.

Here’s a souvenir token billed as an 1852 ½ dollar California gold coin.

Every word of that description is wrong. The token was not manufactured in 1852; is not a half dollar; not a coin; not gold; and does not come from California. Many of these are manufactured in China or sold by a U.S. tourist shop. They typically are gold plated or brass, as these samples:

Unscrupulous sellers buy these replicas, take them out of the holder, and then offer or consign them individually as California fractional gold. (See “California Gold Scam.”) Authentic pioneer gold has a denomination on it, such as 1/4, 1/2 and 1 DOLLAR. The word “dollar” is sometimes abbreviated as D. or DOL.

Here’s is an example of a token vs. a real coin:

Here’s another example of an authentic California gold coin:

Also, California gold coins are designated with “B-G,” initials from the last names of Walter Breen (“B”) and Ronald J. Gillio (“G”) who wrote the reference book, California Pioneer Fractional Gold.

It’s difficult to identify those BG numbers without the book. But you also can use the illustrated PCGS database for the series, comparing your raw coin to the denomination, year, value and type.

To learn more about small and token gold, visit Mike Locke’s California Gold website. He describes dozens of tokens and their values.

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You can find more information about types, varieties, errors, grading, bidding and buying in Coin News Updated: The Essential Guide to Online Bidding. Please consider buying or gifting the work for a friend, as it underwrites this hobbyist blog. Thank you.