The allure & mystique of uncovering gold nuggets while panning for gold make the world’s smallest, purest gold proof a must-have for coin collectors worldwide!

Nothing sparks the imagination of precious metals collectors like a gold rush! Beginning in 1861, intrepid seekers of wealth from as far south as California began hearing tales from men struck with gold fever, just returned from Horsefly River, Keithley Creek, and Antler Creek in British Columbia’s Cariboo region - tales of rivers flowing with gold so close to the surface it hardly required panning! Miners from China called it "Gold Mountain", and, in an unique twist, Bactrian camels were brought in from Asia to pack supplies in and gold nuggets out! Now you can relive the frantically feverish days of the Cariboo Gold Rush on its 150th anniversary!

This amazing pure gold proof a must-have work of art for any fan of the shiny yellow metal! So it's understandable why we're so excited to bring you this amazingly beautiful, amazingly affordable Superior sculpting and engraving captures the textures of the gold nuggets, sand and pan in exquisite detail, making this low-mintage (only 12,000) small gold proof featuring the metal that makes the world go round!

Rivers of Gold, and Camels, Too!
This tenth issue of the Royal Canadian Mint’s Annual 1/25 Ounce Pure Gold Proof Program commemorates the sesquicentennial of the famous Cariboo Gold Rush! 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. Nearly $4 million in gold had been mined that year alone - an absolutely massive amount for the time, equivalent to hundreds of millions of dollars in gold today. 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.

For more information on the Cariboo Gold Rush and panning for gold, please see the article lower in this presentation, below the blue specifications box.

This .9999 fine gold proof features an artistically rendered scene of panning for gold, with the expertly engraved textures of the pan itself, the sand and the gold nuggets realistically depicted. In addition to this affordable gold proof, Canada has also issued a long-running series of Silver Maple Leaf (SML) coins.

The Cariboo Gold Rush 1/25 Ounce Pure Gold Proof is the tenth in the ongoing smallest gold coins series from the Royal Canadian Mint.

Investment Note

The previous 1/25 ounce pure gold coins (2004 Moose, 2005 Voyageurs, 2006 Cowboy, 2007 Wolf, 2008 de Havilland Beaver Float Plane, 2009 Red Maple, 2010 RCMP Royal Canadian Mounted Police Mountie Officer and 2011 Canada Geese) all sold out at the mint and are hard to find. Recently, small gold coins have become particularly desirable because of their affordability and collectibility. Finally, the mintage limit on this new release is only 12,000 - the second-lowest in the series!

Technology Note
The marvelous minting technology of the Royal Canadian Mint has brought us the world’s smallest pure gold coin, in a purity (99.99%) that puts other, larger gold coins to shame!

Obverse

The obverse features an artistic and minutely detailed depiction of actively panning for gold, with the alluvial gold nuggets specially texturized. The date of issue and denomination also appear.

Reverse

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 reads ELIZABETH II D. G. REGINA ("Elizabeth II, Queen by the Grace of God").

The coin is encapsulated inside a burgundy leatherette, clamshell-style presentation case, lined with black velvet and protected by a black outer sleeve. An individually-numbered certificate of authenticity is included.

Specifications

No Simple Flash In the Pan:
Shaking Fortune from the Cariboo’s Rivers of Gold

In 1861, seekers of wealth along North America’s west coast began to hear tales from intrepid men just returned from British Columbia’s Cariboo region—tales of rivers flowing with gold so close to the surface it hardly required panning. By the end of 1863, millions of dollars’ worth of the elusive metal had been extracted in the famous Cariboo Gold Rush.

Despite tales about rivers of gold, however, prospecting the Cariboo was back-breaking work. Gold-seekers began by panning on riverbanks: filling a shallow tin pan with dirt and gravel from the riverbed, submerging the pan in frigid glacial waters, and manually agitating the contents to separate the lighter rock and sand from the gold.

Using panning to locate gold dates back thousands of years. Gold, being denser and heavier than rock and sand, accumulates in bedrock deposits known as “placer deposits.” The gold nuggets and dust found in the riverbeds of the Cariboo had been released from ore by earthquakes, rock slides, and waterways. Prospectors knew that gold’s weight causes it to accumulate at particular points along a waterway, such as the inside of river bends, so this was often where they began their search.

Panning was a helpful first step for finding placer deposits, but was not effective for larger-scale extraction. The next step, though, often depended on the prospector’s financial backing. Those who did not have sufficient resources for more efficient technologies continued panning. Those with the means to do so, however, turned to methods like sluicing and “rockers” that used larger containers and several people working at once to cover significantly larger areas of riverbed.

Despite these technological advancements, the gold pan has remained the iconic symbol of the gold rush dream: one prospector, alone in the wilderness, armed only with a pan and his dreams of hitting gold.