 Gold Country |  Malakoff Home |
Assorted ruins are scattered about the area here, on both sides of the creek. Some sources
allege that one of these ruins housed a private mint operated by John L. Moffat, where he
supposedly struck some of the famous octangular $50 gold “slugs” prized by collectors of
California Territorial gold. Alas, this is not so. While Moffat was a major stockholder in the
Merced Mining Company, which had purchased “Quartz” Johnson’s Mount Ophir mine on March 4 of
1851, there is no evidence to support the story of a mint being located at Mount Ophir. The
confusion probably arises from the fact that while Moffat was an owner in the Merced Mining
Company, he was also still the principal in Moffat & Co., a private mint located in San Francisco
which was producing the $50 gold pieces under contract for the U. S. Assay Office.
Gold Country | Malakoff Home |