Alan V. Weinberg writes:

I visited the US for the very first time (I live in Europe). To be precise, Northern California.

Every visit to California should include San Francisco, and like so many people before me I have fallen in love with the city, its people (most of them), the food and so much more. Certainly a city I will hopefully visit many more times in my still young life (I'm 20).

During my visit to SF I visited several historic places, including the old San Francisco Mint (post to follow), Golden Gate Bridge, Financial District and a lot more. In one of my postings shortly before my visit, one recommended the Bank of California with a small museum. Because I was in the Financial District anyway, I decided to try to find the place on California street to see if it was worth the visit. After walking into the wrong bank at first, I found the Bank of California's main office, a nice building of the bank founded in 1864.

I slowly started to walk around a bit, as it was quite hot outside and the air conditioning was certainly welcome. First parts of the exhibition were a short history of California, especially of the Gold Rush era and a small part about the history of the bank itself. I immediately noticed that Pioneer Gold was a large part of what was there, at least 90%. Having just bought my first territorial gold coin (an 1849 Moffat & Co. $5 gold piece) I was certainly interested in this, and I was certainly glad that I found this place.

California territorial gold pieces were in every case. Included were multiple examples of Moffat & Co, Kellogg & Co, Baldwin & Co, Norris, Gregg and Norris and Wass Moliter & Co pieces alongside lesser known firms. Many coins were in high condition although the overall mix between circulated and uncirculated was about 50/50.

Researcher Karl Moulton noted:

To read the complete forum post, see:Bank of California - A numismatic visit(forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=26&threadid=685407)