1849 California $5 Gambling Token at pounded out site.

matt092079

Bronze Member
Nov 21, 2011
2,033
1,329
Charles Town, WV
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Fisher F75 with 11" DD coil, Garrett Ace 250 with 9x12 coil, Garrett Pro-Pinpointer
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All Treasure Hunting
It will be coming up on a year that we have been pounding this Colonial/1800's site and I thought I would give this site another go before I totally give up on it. It was hard going at first. First good signal early on was the bullet...not sure on type. Maybe a fired spencer, but doesn't really look like most spencers I dig. I basically walked and scouted out the entire perimeter. The middle of it is mostly briars and trees, can't hunt it to say the least. As I got closer to the road it cleared out some and I worked on the other side of this driveway. Last year on the other side of the driveway I found several bullets, large cent, half dime and a few other relics. I figured they had to come through to the other side of the drive and not just stop there. I worked the area and close to this big tree, I get a nice signal, but read as a shotgun shell and trust me I had already had a pouch full of those. But to my surprise it wasn't! I knew I had a token of some sort, but not sure what kind. Texted a pic to my cousin and he looked it up and told me some info on it. Apparently there are modern knock offs of these from what I've learned, but I'm pretty certain just based on location and patina that this is of period. From what I gathered they were struck in the 1850's and were used in lieu of gold coins in games of chance; i.e. gambling. They are brass and the same size as a $5 gold coin of the time period. Pretty cool find indeed and definitely saved my trip out! Other than the beautiful 60 degree weather that is! Thanks for looking and HH!
 

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Upvote 20
Another super find posted on TNet, this post picqued my interest since I have in my possesion a coin/medal/token collection that I am cataloging for a friend and included in it is one of these tokens along with several other Gaming Tokens.
I too researched late last year and concluded the token was most likely struck at the same place as the German Spiel Marke gaming tokens. I also think they were used here on the East Coast amongst the Spiel Marke tokens.
I have seen three posted over the years and all were found east of the Mississippi. I think the connection with California is just to commemorate in a way the gold rush as a gaming token just like the most other gaming tokens also mimic other gold coins not associated with the gold rush.
The reverse of the token with the miner is without a doubt a very special design!

Don

Awesome info, Don! Thank you so much.
 

Found the exact same token in the Quebec region a couple of years ago. Thanks gor the infos!
 

I wonder if a casino would still accept that...
 

super sweet token find right there. congrats!
 

Thanks. I've found like 4 tokens. This is my best one by far.
 

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