The $50 gold slugs are pictured in the "Redbook", formally known as "A Guidebook of United States Coins." They were minted by a private company in San Francisco. There are also some old stories about a number of them being lost in a creek near Mt. Ophir. Their shape was actually octagonal, not egg shaped, but they were fairly crude looking as compared with today's coinage. Due to a lack of hard currency in the California mines, several private companies were officially authorized by the US government to mint coins for use in the mining region. Gary Speck GTUSA@aol.com http://hometown.aol.com/gtusa/index.html << I am going through the Le Grand Advocate and found this article. Has any one ever seen one of these $50 gold slugs? MT. OPHIR Le Grand Advocate, Friday, January 18, 1924 S. H. Wills and two sons, Allen and Homer, motored up to Mr. Ophir last Sunday to see Billy Noland and his partner, sole occupants of that was in the days of =9149, a thriving mining town. Government soldiers were stationed at Mt. Ophir in those days and ruins of their barracks are still there and their parade grounds can be seen, also the ruins of other former stone buildings including a vault in which were stored $50 gold slugs which were minted and used as coin in those days. We wonder if any of those slugs are now in existence. They would be an interesting and valuable relic. Parties are living here who remember the slugs, they were without any inscription and were egg shaped with eight sides. >>