To add to his earlier comments on the pamphlet by E. I. Barra, Dave Bowers writes:

The Library of Congress web site provides this information:

"Barra, E. I. (Ezekiel I.) A tale of two oceans : a new story by an old Californian : an account of a voyage from Philadelphia to San Francisco, around Cape Horn, years 1849-50, calling at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and at Juan Fernandez, in the South Pacific / by E.I. Barra. San Francisco : Press of Eastman & Co., 1893. 198 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. (See http://www.loc.gov/)

Another web search turned up a reference to this book:

Weinpahl, ed. A Gold Rush Voyage on the Bark Orion from Boston around Cape Horn to San Francisco, 1849-1850. A unique record based upon the journals of Foster H. Jenkins, Henry S. Bradley, Seth Draper and Ezekial I. Barra. 1978.

So we have a few more clues about the no-longer-so- mysterious E. I. Barra. His first name was Ezekiel, he was an adult by 1849, probably living in Philadelphia. He sailed to California to seek his fortune. He visited the San Francisco Mint and published "Something About Coins" in 1863, and sold coins in the Keller sale that year, also in San Francisco. It seems very likely that he was living that city, perhaps having stayed from his arrival in the Gold Rush. He lived in California at least to 1893, when he published his memoir.

NBS Secretary-Treasurer Dave Hirt notes that the Keller sale of Barra's collection is probably the earliest numismatic auction held on the West Coast.