There is a great deal of mis-information circulating about small California gold coins and tokens.  This guide provides facts which have been assembled from over 10 years of mostly original research into the topic.

Joseph Brothers of San Francisco began making California Gold half dollars in 1852.  It was legal for a private manufacturer to make such pieces at the time, and production of gold quarter dollars and dollars soon followed.  These tiny substitutes for a pinch of gold during a small coin shortage never became popular for use as money.  However, by late 1853 they had become popular for use as souvenirs that gold miners could economically mail to their families.  The coins were quickly altered to reduce the gold content from about 80% of full value down to about 60% of full value, and even lower in later years.  Production of these souvenirs has never stopped and continues today.

The early issues have a denomination that includes the word DOLLAR or CENTS or an abbreviation thereof.  Congress passed laws in 1864 that made it illegal to privately manufacture tokens that could be confused with US mint issues.  The secret service (the president's police force) is responsible for the enforcement of coinage laws because the president is in charge of the mint.  From 1871-1883, the secret service ruled that most of the souvenir California gold coins could be confused with a federal gold dollar and progressively suppressed the production of the pieces during this period.  Manufacturers first responded by removing DOLLAR from the legends, but that was apparently not sufficient for the secret service.  Manufacturers then restored DOLLAR to the legend and tried hiding their production facilities and started the practice of backdating the coins in an attempt to evade the enforcement.  The Secret Service seized most of the dies and coins in 1883 and put a short term stop to production of the coins.

However, production resumed promptly in 1884 by at least 3 manufacturers.  Some of these manufacturers used the current date, some backdated the pieces.  Most used new designs, perhaps hoping to attract less attention from the secret service.  The well known design with a bear on the back was invented sometime after 1900 (perhaps 1915).  This design became quite popular and is still made today.  About the time of F. D. Roosevelt's 1933 ban on private gold ownership, the production changed from mostly solid gold to mostly gold plated copper.  Later still (early 1960s), manufacturers were encouraged by federal authorities to stop wasting gold and switch to solid brass.

A couple of manufacturers put DOLLAR on their tokens after 1883.  Some of these are common (the Kroll hoard and Kroll restrike pieces), while some are rare.  It is a good idea to learn about these pieces and decide what is interesting to you before you buy.

Some specific misconceptions are listed below:

There is no requirement to put the actual date of manufacture on California souvenir gold.

There is no requirement to put any gold into a piece that proclaims CALIFORNIA GOLD in the legend.

There is no requirement for a piece that proclaims CALIFORNIA GOLD to be made in California.  In fact, these pieces have been made in Kansas, Illinois, New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, Great Britain, Italy and probably Japan.

Some old pieces have no or very little gold, some much newer pieces are solid gold.  Estimating the gold content of one of these tiny pieces without damaging it is a bit of an art.  Standard jeweler's test methods (touch stone or acid drop) always damage the piece.

Most of the solid gold tokens contain about 0.1 to 0.2 grams of gold, or 0.003 to 0.006 ounces.  If gold is $1000/ounce, that means the gold in the piece is worth $3 to $6.  The solid gold tokens generally sell for much more than that, so that the value of the gold in the piece is not a factor in the value of the piece.

Anything is collectible, so none of these pieces are worthless as-is proclaimed in most editions of the Redbook (A Guide Book of United States Coins).  However, some pieces are common, some are rare, some are popular and some are not.  The value of a piece is determined by supply and demand.  California souvenir gold ranges in value from a few dollars to many thousands of dollars.  Most of the pieces that you find for sale are later date pieces that are brass and valued in the $5-10 range.

Modern California souvenir tokens are rarely replicas (an attempt to accurately copy an earlier issue) or restrikes (a piece struck using the original dies long after the original striking was finished), as they typically have different designs than the original pieces.  However, some replicas have been very recently made and a readily available as of 2009.

None of these pieces is HEX (or hexagonal, 6 sided).  Octogonal is a French word, octagonal (8 sided) is English.  Round and octagonal shapes are well known.

California was never an organized territory of the USA.  California became a state on September 9, 1850.  Therefore none of the California Fractional gold coins can be territorial issues by any definition of territorial, since they were first made in 1852.  These coins are properly classified as private issue gold coins.

The helmeted figure on many of these souvenirs is Minerva, the goddess of California and the Roman goddess of wisdom.  She is not a soldier as is often stated.  Minerva is depicted in the Great Seal of the State of California, holding a spear (not a man going fishing with his dog)

When Minerva is fully depicted, she is holding a shield and a spear.  The "emblem" on the shield is the severed head of Medusa.

The Great Seal of the State of California is often mislabeled as the Arms of California.

The 1884 tokens with the Great Seal of the State of California design that depict a bear with the legs cut off by the edge of the design was engraved by A. Kuener, who also engraved the 1st and 3rd official versions of the Great Seal of the State of California as well as many dies for larger private issue gold coins.  This design pretty accurately replicates the official design at that time.  These particular tokens were struck by C Mohrig of San Francisco, apparently only in 1884.

EUREKA (Greek for I found it)  is the California state motto, it is not the name of the design beneath the word.

The foliage that surrounds the bear on many of these pieces represent California Poppies, the state flower.

A sun with rays in the design of one of these pieces is a rising sun; this is part of the Great Seal of the State of California, an illustration of the path from up the Sacramento river to the gold fields (that would be East).  Note that a sun with rays on an Alaska Gold token is the midnight sun.