Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ Coin Resource Center covers a wide range of U.S. numismatic material; in addition to federally-issued coins from half cents through the 1915 Panama-Pacific $50 commemorative gold coins, the CRC includes entries on North American colonial and territorial coinage. In addition to the entries on series and individual issues, we also publish “Coin Collector’s Guides,” primers on collecting strategies, to help collectors establish a focus and parameters for their collections.
Recently we’ve added a Coin Collector’s Guide dealing with Territorial Gold, a popular, collecting field which covers a wide range of issues spread across diverse geographic regions and much of the 19th century. Any number of interesting collections of Territorial gold could be formed and our guide introduces collectors to the more attainable issues – which is to say, the issues that most regularly come up for sale.
Territorial gold was produced around major gold strikes at different points in the 19th century, notably in Georgia and North Carolina in the 1820s and 1830s, California from the 1840s through the 1880s, Utah and Oregon in the late 1840s and Colorado in the 1860s. Various Assay Offices and private firms produced gold coins in a variety of finenesses, sizes, and denominations bearing a number of designs. Our Coin Collector’s Guide outlines the range of issues and their collectability, and identifies the ten firms whose products are most often available.
Collectors interested in exploring Territorial Gold (or any other U.S. material) should check out the CRC’s resources on the topic.
