Not all California Gold Tokens had Liberty Head or Indian Head designs...

Some California Gold Tokens had a Washington Head obverse, some had a Hard Rock Miner obverse, and then there were those which were out there a bit.

Scarce to rare, this set of California Gold Tokens dealt with other topics: birds, moon and shooting stars, herons, the bust of a "Chinaman" and even a cherub (or cupid ?). This series tended to share a more-or-less common reverse, the date within a wreath (although the style of wreath did change with each obverse design).

Obviously, not made to pass as "real" California gold coinage, this series of tokens was made as charms and is now quite tough to find, expecially in nice (unholed) condition. Charms tended to acquire holes even to a greater degree than California denominated gold pieces (which were also heavily holed for jewelry). As an aside, it would be interesting to know what percentage of California Gold Tokens and Denominated pieces were actually damaged for use in jewelry.

Here is a recently acquired Cherub design token. Too bad it's not Valentines Day...

Later. Cal Gold "Token" Guy

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