California 1/2 Golds 0

[NevadaS&G]

Hello i dont know much about these 1/2 Cali coins. I was cleaning out my Grand Pops garage and came upon 15 of these. 

Are they worth anything, They came from a home where they kept things for 100 Years.

Can someone inform me of what they are, do i need to grade them etc.

[NevadaS&G]

[Conder101]

Bear on the back, it's a fantasy/fake.

No denomination (D, Dol, Dollar etc) it's a fantasy/fake.

[James_OldeTowne]

It's one of many very common modern (well, 1960s / 1970s I believe) replicas with no real collector value.

[RWB]

A jewelry supply company made thousands of these. If your Grand Pops paid $185 for that, he got taken for $184.99.

Edited October 1, 2020 by RWB

[NevadaS&G]

22 minutes ago, RWB said:

A jewelry supply company made thousands of these. If your Grand Pops paid $185 for that, he got taken for $184.99.

What about the staples, they look old, all of these on the auction sites have new shiny staples

[NevadaS&G]

They were in a bin with 5 dollar gold Liberties and Older US Mint Silver Gold Sets and they are not all the same, most are all different. He could have a couple fakes I get to go to his house again so 

i can better document everything. He wants me to sell his coin collection so he can cash out and he handed me a bank bag full of Ike dollars must have been 500 and almost weighed that much in lbs.

Who wants to go thru 500 Ikes (not me)

Edited October 1, 2020 by NevadaS&G

[RWB]

Evaluating a coin by the appearance of staples in a 2x2 is not a reliable approach.

There are complaints and letters going back 150 years about this kind of jewelry junk. Others can point you toward collector sites with photos of the fakes.

The 500 Ikes are likely worth $500 - unless they are not only uncirculated but of unusually high quality. Ikes were shipped in bags of $1,000 and nearly all coins were marked and scraped before the bag was opened. Just the act of falling from the press to a receiving bin could make the General look like he'd had smallpox.

[Conder101]

For the other 14 California fractional piece refer to my first post.  If any of them DON'T have a bear and DO have a denomination, then post pictures and we will see what we can do,   But like I said Bear, no good, No denomination, no good.

[NevadaS&G]

20 minutes ago, Conder101 said:

For the other 14 California fractional piece refer to my first post.  If any of them DON'T have a bear and DO have a denomination, then post pictures and we will see what we can do,   But like I said Bear, no good, No denomination, no good.

Thanks, will do soon.

[RWB]

FYI - According to assays done at the Philadelphia Mint, the real California gold quarters and halves contained about half their claimed value in gold. The balance was native silver, copper, zinc and other scrap metals.