The Cincinnati Mining & Trading Company never actually made gold coins in California; however, they did make some pattern pieces before they went west. Some sources indicate that some members of the group came overland and reached California in the fall of 1849. It is also believed that Broderick & Kahler were issuers of the Cincinnati Mining & Trading Co. coins from original dies that were made by the group but never used. Four dozen people were on the list of the company’s regular members. The president was J.H. Leavering, W.B. Norman was the vice-president, and David Kinsey was the treasurer.

In March of 1849 a steam ship, the Bay State left Cincinnati down the Ohio River. The members of the Cincinnati Company were aboard. Another group bringing “coining apparatus” is reported to have gone overland by way of St. Louis.

Today two Cincinnati $20.00 pattern pieces are known to exist in copper. Others may exist. These are definitely die trials and may be patterns as well. This design for a $20 gold denomination was obviously considered, or even planned. Yet, there is no evidence that a production run of Cincinnati $20 gold coins ever occurred. It is probably a design-type that was never adopted.

The $20 Cincinnati pattern in the Bass collection is NGC certified F12 BN. Bass had two Cincinnati ‘pattern’ half eagles. The copper piece was in a Stack’s auction in December 1997. The second $5 piece is made of gold plated copper (gilt), and is certified by NCS with the designation that the piece has the details of an Extremely Fine grade.

Unfortunately, there are quite a number of common replicas of Territorial Gold coins. Cincinnati Mining and Tracing Co. (an engraving error – authentic pieces have the correct company name, Cincinnati Mining & Trading Co.) are among those found far more often as replicas than as the original.