The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 2, January 13, 2002, Article 8

FRACTIONAL GOLD SOUVENIRS

  Sometimes a piece of ephemera turns out to be the missing
  link that solves an old mystery.  One numismatic debate
  that has raged for ages concerns the circulation (or lack
  thereof) of the small fractional California gold pieces.

  An article by Robert Chandler in the Winter 2001 issue
  of The Brasher Bulletin (Newsletter of the Society of
  Private and Pioneer Numismatics) has an illustration
  and transcription of an 1853 letter confirming that at
  least one of the pieces was sold as a souvenir.

  James G. Hughes, a Marine stationed aboard the
  fifty-gun frigate St. Lawrence at San Francisco, CA,
  wrote a letter dated September 5, 1853 to Abraham
  R. Springer of Kulpsville, PA (near Philadelphia).

  "The[re] is a coin heir is a cureoserty in the U.S. for
  the people are buying them up at 37 1/2 cents and
  sending them home so I thought I would send you one."

  Chandler notes: "In a small packet fixed to the letter, a
  bit of red sealing wax held a 50 cent piece by Pierre
  Frontier & Eugene Deviercy - either BG 401 and 407,
  or BG 409, from 1853.  The wax retained the imprint
  of the box on the reverse, while the paper shows the
  impression of the coin."

  ["BG" stands for Breen-Gillio, the standard reference
  for Pioneer Fractional Gold. -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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