Anglo-Californian Gold Mining Co - Stock Certificate
Inv# MS1002B Stock
Graded by PMG, 63 EPQ choice Uncirculated.
Mining Stock. Early Gold Rush stock. This was the largest foreign issue of a California gold rush venture. The company literally sold thousands of shares in a venture of which little or nothing is known. The company began as the Anglo California Gold Mining & Dredging Co. So historic. No vignette, but ornate title. Especially choice, fresh condition. Rare!!! This very early stock allowed investors in England to participate in the “Gold Rush” from the safety of their homes.
Anglo-Californian Gold Mining Co., dated 1852 to 1853, Not cancelled. Choice Uncirculated with usual minor spindle holes. Approx. 7.5" x 8". According to Filer (Holabird), this was the largest foreign issue of a California Gold Rush venture that we know of. The company literally sold thousands of shares. The company began as the Anglo California Gold Mining & Dredging Co. in 1849., owned by Luke Williams. It was the last of Williams "gold bubble company promotions." Williams sent Henry Vere Huntley to Calaveras River in 1849. Huntely was unsuccessful, so he hired miners of the Quartz Rock Mariposa Gold Co. and arranged a deal with them. While he was in America, the name of the company had changed. The lack of progress and name changing made the directors of the company very suspicious, and they forced Williams out in April 1851. The new directors decided to crush and process ore mined by others, and sent two steam engines and crushing mills on the Augusta that year. [Ref: Filer and "Money Pits: British Mining Companies in the Californian and Australian Gold Rushes of the 1850s, pg 76-77, Woodward] (Prag Collection).
This was one of the companies formed by John C. Fremont to develop Mariposa Estate, which he purchased from Mexico in 1847. Like many 19th century companies, investment capital came from European investors (in this case the English).
The California Gold Rush (1848 – 1855) began on January 24. 1848. when gold was discovered by James W. Marshall at Sutter’s Mill, in Coloma, Calif.
News of the discovery brought some 300.003 people rushing to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. Of the 300,000. Approximately 150,000 (many from Europe) arrived by sea while the other half of them walked 1,500 miles overland.
A stock certificate is issued by businesses, usually companies. A stock is part of the permanent finance of a business. Normally, they are never repaid, and the investor can recover his/her money only by selling to another investor. Most stocks, or also called shares, earn dividends, at the business's discretion, depending on how well it has traded. A stockholder or shareholder is a part-owner of the business that issued the stock certificates.
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