2½ Dollars "Coronet Head - Quarter Eagle" · “Coronet Head - Quarter Eagle”

The Coronet Head Quarter Eagle

In 1848, the U.S. government took raw gold straight from a California streambed, struck it into tiny coins, and stamped each one with three letters — CAL. — to mark where it came from. Those coins were Coronet Head quarter eagles, and that small stamp made them, arguably, the first American commemoratives.