Unofficially the 1848 CAL Quarter Eagle gold coin was the first commemorative coinissued by the U.S. Mint. Obviously this coin came about due to the discovery of gold inCalifornia in 1848. On January 24, 1848 James Marshall, while working at Sutter's Millon the American River spotted gold flakes in the streambed. From there the rest ishistory.

It was soon after that that the gold rush began and coinage was struck from Californiagold. The Mormons were actually the first to strike a gold coin from California goldwhich was brought back to Salt Lake City from returning Mormon Battalion members.The first deposit of gold in Salt Lake City was on November 23, 1848 by EbenezerBrown, a Battalion member. It was on December 12, 1848 that the first $10 Mormongold coins were struck. These initial coins bore the date of 1849. This was less than ayear since the discovery at Sutter's Mill.

The next coin to be struck was the famous 1848 CAL Quarter Eagle struck a few dayslater in December of 1848 with the counter-stamp CAL impressed on the reverse of thecoin. The exact date of its striking is not known but records note that some of these CALQuarter Eagles were available on January 5, 1849. The gold for these coins came from ashipment of 228 ounces of California gold shipped by Col. R.B. Masson Jr. who at thetime was the acting Governor of California. The shipment left California on August 17th,1848 and arrived in Philadelphia on December 8, 1848 which was confirmed by a letterfrom the secretary of war, W.L. Marcy directed to mint director Patterson. As is the casewith raw gold bullion it was not ready for coining and had to be processed and coinagemost likely began soon after. Estimates of 1,389 pieces were struck from this gold. Thisnumber is also an estimate based upon the weight of the original deposit.

The next interesting question was how were the letters CAL imparted into the coinsthemselves? There are several theories, the most repeated one is that they were punchedinto the coin while still in the die. This to me indicates it was accomplished before thecoin was ejected which doesn't seem possible. How could one set the punch thenhammer it while still in the press and die? Reading about multiple examples which havebeen examined by experts, the CAL punch is virtually identical in position on all observedcoins. Also noted are several coins which show signs of double punching and was triplepunched. No coins show any flattening on the obverse lending credence to the othertheory that the punch was applied after the coin was struck but placed into a die with a jigused to assure a standard position.

There is no documentation that these CAL coins were ever sold at a premium but justplaced into circulation, or sold at face value to the few collectors at the time who had knowledge of their creation. Today it is estimated that about 200 survive and they areactively collected by specialists. This coin is ranked as #70 in the current 5th edition ofthe

The third coin struck from California gold is that of the Norris, Gregg, & Norris, a $5territorial coin. This coin preceded literally dozens of private mints which beganoperation prior to both the U.S. Assay office and later the San Francisco mint. Again,details are not known regarding the actual operation and initial striking but newspaperreports told that they were available as early as May in 1849.

These three coins were the first to be struck from California gold. One other interestingfirst is that of the first $20 denomination struck. This was also accomplished by theMormons with their $20 Coin struck on December 22, 1849. This preceded the U.S.Mints striking of the first pattern 1849 Liberty Head Double Eagle by several days.

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