BG- 806, 1868 California Fractional Gold 25C, Liberty Round PCGS MS67 R3

The broad-necked Liberty head design is an attribute of Frontier, Deviercy & Co., a prolific producer of California fractional gold coins during the first half of Period Two. Frontier, Deviercy, and Co. had their business at 137 Pine Street in San Francisco. They purchased the jewelry firm of the Joseph Brothers, the acknowledged pioneers of the development and production of California Fractional Gold coinage.

The obverse presents a left-facing Liberty surrounded by seven stars. Upon the reverse is found a wreath with berries open at the top. ‘1/4’ is above, with ‘DOLLAR 1868’ below within the wreath. PCGS has graded 5 as MS67 with 1 finer. Collectors Universe gives this variety a price of $3,000.00 in MS67. For more information about this affordable Fractional Gold variety, please see below this listing.

The 1868 Hayward earthquake took place in the San Francisco Bay Area the year this variety was produced. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Don Kagin, the author of Private Gold Coins and Patterns of the United States (1981), explains how such coins were produced:

Most of the fractional coins were made by the hammer method.... This was a process of striking where the bottom die was placed on a block, a coin blank was laid upon it, and the top die upon the blank; this top die was then struck by a sledgehammer. Blows of varying intensity would cause portions of one side or edge to be more weakly struck than another.