Canada 2012 Cariboo GOLD RUSH Panning Sluice Camel $100 Gold Proof in FULL OGP
Canada's great gold rush, with miners panning & sluicing and a camel! , make this a must-have for coin collectors! Nothing sparks the imagination of precious metals collectors like a gold rush!
Tales of rivers flowing with gold. So close to the surface it hardly required panning! Now you can relive the frantically feverish days of the Cariboo Gold Rush on its 150th anniversary! A gold rush miner in the foreground pans for gold, while another miner works a sluice box, and a third rides a Bactrian camel in the back country of British Columbia. Superior sculpting captures the excitement of the quest for gold in exquisite detail, making this low-mintage gold proof a must-have work of art for any fan of the shiny yellow metal!Rivers of Gold, and Camels, Too! Gold was first discovered in the remote Cariboo region of British Columbia in 1859, and by 1861 a full-blown gold rush was underway! By the end of 1863, with the rich Williams Creek discovery, more than 100 companies had staked 3,000 claims near Barkerville in the Cariboo. Although most of the gold was extracted during the first five years of the Cariboo Gold Rush, many claims were still being worked into the early 1900s. Provincial records indicate that a minimum of 2,592,385 ounces of gold were extracted from the region between 1858 and 1898.
The dangerous trip to the early Cariboo Gold Fields was costly, in terms of supplies, pack animals, and, yes, human life. The Cariboo Wagon Road was essential to the success of the Cariboo Gold Rush, but its extreme toll almost pushed the British colony into virtual bankruptcy. Giving prospectors and the government access to Cariboo gold meant quarrying and building by hand a massive highway through mountains of rock, across deadly canyons and rolling glacial rivers, into regions virtually unreachable eight months of the year. One fascinating tale of the Cariboo Gold Rush was the short-lived use of camels as pack animals. In 1862, an enterprising local merchant, Frank Laumeister, having learned that the United States government had successfully used camels for transport in Texas, Arizona, and California, brought 21 camels to carry loads through the Fraser River canyon to the Cariboo region.People mistakenly believed camels could work without water for days on end and travel unprecedented distances with massive loads. Unfortunately, the camels carried rather standard loads for rather standard distances. Their desert-evolved feet could not withstand British Columbia's treacherous mountain terrain.
Although the government eventually banned them from Cariboo to save life and limb, the camels themselves went on to live diverse lives, some producing heirs into the early 1900s. From 3,000 to only 2,500! In 2007, the mintage limit was nearly slashed in half, being reduced from 9,000 to only 5,000.Consider too the highly collected gold rush and gold mining themes (topics few and far-between on actual gold coins)! Once again, this is a very small mintage indeed for this ever-popular and affordable series, so the 2012 entry in this 30-year-old program seems like a sure sell-out, too!
The date and denomination are also indicated. Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, in profile facing right.
This portrait, the fourth effigy of the queen to appear on Canadian coinage, was executed by the artist Susanna Blunt. The legend ELIZABETH II D. REGINA ("Elizabeth II, Queen by the Grace of God") and mint mark also appear. The coin is encapsulated inside a burgundy leatherette, clamshell-style presentation case, lined with black velvet and protected by a black outer box.
An individually-numbered certificate of authenticity is included. 5833 Fine (14-Karat) Gold alloyed with. This item is in the category "Coins & Paper Money\Coins: Canada\Commemorative". The seller is "talismancoins" and is located in this country: US.This item can be shipped worldwide.
- Circulated/Uncirculated: Proof Uncirculated
- Denomination: $100 One Hundred Dollars
- Composition: Gold
- Year: 2012
- Grade: Proof Uncirculated
- Country/Region of Manufacture: Canada
- Finish: Proof
- Certification: In full original mint packaging OGP + CoA