No Simple Flash In the Pan: Shaking Fortune fromthe Cariboo's Rivers of Gold

In 1861, seekers of wealthalong 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 metalhad been extracted in the famous Cariboo Gold Rush.

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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 severalpeople 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.

This coin is the tenth issue of the 1/25 oz in gold series. This collection includes 14 coins who was released between 2004 and 2014.
 

1/25 OZ IN GOLD - 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CARIBOO GOLD RUSH - 2012 CANADIAN COINS 10 is categorised COINS AND PAPER MONEY / 08- ROYAL CANADIAN MINT / 07- PURE GOLD and sold by l'Imaginaire, a store and specialised website.