California gold for the Philadelphia Mint, 1847

[disme]

In December 1847 there was a deposit of gold from California at the Philadelphia Mint, which was prior

to the discovery of gold on the Sutter ranch. The amount, 18,000 dwts (pennyweights), is equivalent to

900 ounces. The Mint considered this as being from a foreign country as there had yet been no treaty of

peace ending the Mexican War.

 

California gold dust and/or lumps was not pure as it normally contained a certain amount of silver.

 

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Does anyone have an idea of where this gold might have been found in California? It is reported that

there may have been earlier deposits of gold from California but, if so, they have not yet been found in

the Mint records.

[RWB]

There were several small gold rushes in the Los Angeles area and elsewhere, but I don't recall any details. Prior to the annexation, Mexican law prohibited export of silver or gold without a substantial tax being paid. Much Mexican silver entered the US via New Orleans from Texas and other Mexican states.

 

In 1835 the Texas portion of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas, which bordered Louisiana and the Mississippi River, declared its independence. The Rio Grande River was claimed as its southern border rather than the colonial Spanish-era boarder of the Nueces River. The Coahuila portion also claimed independence and joined with the states of Nuevo León and Tamaulipas in 1840 as the short-lived Republic of the Rio Grande. The U.S. Mexico border remained in dispute following Texas’ annexation in 1845. This led to the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 which ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty forced large territorial concessions by Mexico including establishment of the Rio Grande as the national border with Texas. In addition, portions of the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Tamaulipas, and the territories of Alta California and Santa Fé de Nuevo México to the United States. This was substantially all of the modern United States south of the Louisiana Purchase, and contained more than half of Mexico’s territory.

[DaveG]

I also dimly recall there having been some small gold rushes in the Los Angeles area, but I don't recall any details.

 

I did a quick search through Google Books, but didn't find any references to California gold published in 1847. The search should have picked up any mentions in Hunt's Merchants Magazine and others, but it may still be worth searching directly the collected volumes electronically.

 

I don't have a copy of QDB's Gold Rush book, but perhaps he includes some comments in there (since he reprinted a lot of original information).

 

As Roger mentioned, a lot of Mexican silver was deposited in the New Orleans Mint, mostly in coin form, however; very little foreign gold bullion was deposited there during the 1840's and 1850's.

 

If there had been earlier deposits of California gold in the Philadelphia Mint, it wouldn't have been that much, as foreign bullion deposits generally ran under $200,000 annually during the 1840's.

[RWB]

According to anecdotes from the Georgia and North Carolina gold fields, it was not until 1848 that any other gold strikes were of enough interest to cause miners to relocate in any substantial numbers. [These were reviewed as part of research for “From Mine to Mint” but were considered peripheral to the book’s subject.]

 

This article might also be of interest:

http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/signal/coins/worden-coinage1005.htm

 

“Gold was discovered in Mexican California, in 1842 at Placerita Creek, about thirty-five miles northwest of the pueblo of Los Angeles. Although gold from the Placerita strike was the first ever sent from California to the U.S. Mint, the deposits proved to be inconsequential and attracted little attention.” [James J. Rawls and Richard J. Orsi, ed. A Golden State: Mining and Economic Development in Gold Rush California. Berkley: 1999 University of California Press. p.3.]

[Prethen]

Oddly enough, I just read an entire essay on these coins from "Selections From The Numismatist: United States Coins" (1960). The article, I think written around 1948 for the centennial of those coins goes into a lot of detail as far as what was happening around Sutter's Mill, what type of gold was being found, how much, what composition, who was finding it, how the government was involved, why "CAL" go put onto the quarter eagles, approximately how many were struck and from exactly what amount of grains of gold, approximately how many might survive, etc.

 

Very cool essay (includes original correspondence and information straight from James Polk). Also, this book in general is an absolute numismatic gem!

 

[BillJones]

Prethen, I think you are talking about the classic article by R.S. Yeoman that has long been admired on this subject.

[Prethen]

Bill, yep, that's the one. The funny thing is wrote part of it in a novel-like form with the historic characters as sort of like actors. It was very interesting.

[RWB]

There is, I believe, much better information now available than the 1960 article. It was excellent in its day.