4.12.06

F I R S TP R E V437NEXTLAST

Gold!, Wells Fargo Bank Museum
During the Gold Rush the value of an ounce of gold was set at $16.00 and in 1849, $10 million worth of gold was harvested. In 1850 that amount grew to $40 million, and then to $80 million in 1851. That three-year total would be worth more than $50 billion by today's values. This led to a lot of wild spending by lucky miners.

Poker games with single $25,000 hands were common in San Francisco. Some lonely miners would pay $16 (about $320 dollars, today) to be able to sit next to a pretty woman while they ate. Servant girls, the moment they arrived were offered $500 a month if they could cook. One gentleman who had just landed, tossed a quarter at a ragged-looking man on the docks to carry his bags. The ragged man tossed back a $5 gold piece and told the gentleman to carry them himself. There was also the lucky miner who was known to skip $20 gold pieces out into the Bay. But by 1854 the gold had run out and with it the high times.
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