By Stewart Huckaby ( Article titled Found Treasures: 1848 CAL Quarter Eagle)

I grew up in California, and even today it is difficult to impossible to underestimate the impact of the Gold Rush in the state’s history. In January 1848, James Marshall, during the process of constructing a sawmill for Johann (John) Sutter upriver from what is now Sacramento, found a few shiny flecks of what turned out to be gold. When word got out, fortune seekers from all over the world descended on California, headed for the Sierra Nevada foothills, and set out to make their fortunes. California, which had just recently become an American possession and indeed was technically still in Mexican hands when Marshall made his discovery, achieved full statehood before 1850 was out, and it has never looked back since.

Numismatic evidence of the gold rush is abundant in the forms of the many Territorial and Fractional gold pieces one might find in any decent-sized Heritage auction, not to mention the S mintmark found on products of the San Francisco Mint, which opened in 1854. Chronologically, though, the earliest numismatic memento of the Gold Rush is the 1848 “CAL” quarter eagle, so-called because of the “CAL.” stamped by the mint into its reverse, above the eagle, to signify that the gold used to mint the coins was out of the California gold fields.

Some numismatists consider this piece a commemorative coin, and it certainly has some of the characteristics. However, it is also by no means unprecedented for a coin to show the source of the metal used to coin it. One well-known example of this is some of the British coinage of 1703, which contained a “VIGO” provenance mark to show that the metal used to make the coins was taken from the Spanish in a military victory in Vigo Bay. Unlike the “CAL.”, the “VIGO” and certain other provenance marks that appeared on coinage around the same time were a part of the dies used to mint the coin.

Because the “CAL.” is stamped rather than minted, the location of the letters relative to the eagle can vary. However, because only one punch was used the locations of the letters relative to each other is constant and can be used to help authenticate the coin. Unlike most counterstamps, the “CAL.” stamp did not result in a raised area on the opposite side of the coin; this is conjectured to be because the counterstamp was applied while the coin was in the dies.

Only 1,389 1848 CAL quarter eagles were minted, and the small mintage along with the coin’s historical significance and uniqueness has served over time to make it popular and justifiably expensive. A look through the population figures shows that the major grading services have seen 1848 CAL quarter eagles just over 100 times, assigning grades from Good 6 to MS68.  Relatively available in mint state grades when it can be found at all; 42 coins, counting resubmissions, have been certified as Mint State, compared with 27 examples of the more common or at least less storied 1848 quarter eagle without CAL.

Today, a solid AU50 1848 CAL quarter eagle might bring around $40,000 at auction, with full Gems exceeding six figures. As for a low end coin, we can only speculate although this Good 6 example in the upcoming October 23-25 Heritage Dallas auction has already attracted a bid of $11,000 as I write this and will likely sell for substantially more.

This coin is the lowest-graded 1848 Cal that appears in the PCGS Population Report (9/08)