1848 CAL Quarter Eagle Anniversary Worth Noting

Anniversaries can be kind of a mixed blessing. You can be happy to be around for a milestone, but they also mark the passage of time, which suggests you are getting older. If it is a 175th anniversary, however, it does not much matter so you can safely mark the occasion. That is the case with the 1848 quarter eagle.

The first legislation to authorize the U.S. Mint and coinage included gold. It had not, however, provided the gold and silver or even the copper from which to make those coins. In the case of gold, the only real source in 1792 had been the gold coins of other nations. There was no American Eagle program. In fact, the Mint was happy to buy gold from the public instead of the other way around.

Things continued that way for almost 40 years until Georgia and North Carolina experienced gold discoveries. With the new gold supplies, gold coin production increased but remained low. That is shown in the 1848 quarter eagle production.

Philadelphia struck a total of 7,497 pieces in the regular way, while at the branch mints, which were in the gold fields, the levels were 16,788 for Charlotte and 13,771 for Dahlonega. Those levels seem extremely low today, but for the period they were not really remarkable. All three 1848 quarter eagles bring premium prices, yet are not considered significant rarities.

There is, however, one 1848 quarter eagle that is considered a rarity. That is the 1848 quarter eagle produced at Philadelphia with a “CAL” countermark punched into the reverse.

The 1848 CAL quarter eagle had a reported mintage of 1,389 pieces and it ranks as one of the most important coins in American history.

The reason for the CAL countermark is that the coins were created from the first 282 ounces of gold sent east from the gold discoveries of California to the U.S. Secretary of War William L. Marcy. When this first gold from the California fields arrived, Marcy had some of it used to create medals for Generals Scott and Taylor. The rest he had struck into quarter eagles and while each coin rested in the die they were countermarked “CAL.” We do not really know why Marcy did this.

There were historical similarities to issues from Europe, but it had never been done at the U.S. Mint. What we do know is that Marcy in a sense created the first U.S. commemorative as well as a great rarity.

The gold in those coins, however, was even more significant. It would really change forever the gold coins of the United States.

There were only 282 ounces in that first shipment, but it was simply the first batch of tons that followed. The Mint would go on to produce $1, $3, $4 and $20 gold coins from the bounty in addition to the denominations stipulated in 1792. It would also produce far greater numbers of gold coins than it had ever done in the past. A mere three years later, the 1-million-piece quarter eagle mintage mark was reached at Philadelphia. It topped 1 million quarter eagles again in 1852.

In our numismatic history, few single events have so changed the types and numbers of coins produced as the discovery of gold in California. Those 1848 CAL quarter eagles are the historic artifacts of that discovery. Their anniversary year is worth noting.