History Behind The Book That Made Mark Twain Famous

   Twain first wrote the title short story at the request of his friend Artemus Ward, for inclusion in an upcoming book. Twain worked on two versions but neither was satisfactory to him—neither got around to describing the jumping frog contest. Ward pressed him again, but by the time Twain devised a version he was willing to submit, that book was already nearing publication, so Ward sent it instead to The Saturday Press, where it appeared in the November 18, 1865 edition as "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog". Twain's colorful story was immensely popular, and was soon printed in many different magazines and newspapers. Twain developed the idea further, and Bret Harte published this version in The Californian on December 16; this time titled "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", and the man named Smiley was changed to Greeley.   Further popularity of the tale led Twain to use the story to anchor his own first book which appeared in 1867, with a first issue run of only 1,000 copies. The first edition was issued in seven colors, with no priority: blue, brown, green, lavender, plum, terra-cotta and red and is sought after by book collectors fetching thousands of dollars at auctions. In the book version, Twain changed Greeley back to Smiley.

Mark Twain Museum (VIDEO)

1865 Angels Camp's Frogs Become Famous

On November 18, 1865, a young, aspiring journalist published a short story in the New York Saturday Press. The newspaper was short lived, but the fame of the author wasn't. It turned out that this story was his first important work in a long line of celebrated stories that made him world-famous. The story: "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"; the author: Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain.

The story is about Jim Smiley, a local gambler who would bet on anything from the death of Parson Walker's wife to fights between his bulldog pup, Andrew Jackson, and other dogs. One day a stranger to the town agreed to bet on a frog jumping higher than Jim's frog,Daniel Webster. When Jim wasn't looking, the stranger poured quail shot into Daniel Webster's mouth making it impossible for him to jump at all. The stranger won the $40 bet and escaped before Jim realized the con.

It isn't clear if Angels Hotel (current home of Calaveras Coin & Pawm) was the place where the infamous jumping contest happened, but this hotel is certified as the place where Mark Twain first heard the story that later made him famous. Not only Mark Twain gained fame through the story. It also put the tiny mining town Angels Camp on the world's map, and since the late 1800s, the town celebrates the famous writer and its very own frog jumping history with an annualFrog Jumping Jubilee.

Come visit us at Calaveras Coin & Pawn the home of the Mark Twain Story

Re-Visit The Gold Rush - Celebrate Frog, Friendship, and Fascinating History in Angels Camp

   Ten miles southeast of San Andreas and three or four miles from Carson Hill sat Angels Camp, named for Henry and George Angel who had accompanied James Carson south from Weber Creek. A lot of placer gold was found in Angels Creek and the gulches and flats around it. In 1852 two brothers named Winter washed nine thousand dollars in gold through a common sluice from a plot of two hundred square feet of surface earth. Below the dirt they came to a layer of limestone containing gold mixed with sulfur that, when crushed and worked like quartz, yielded as much as $200 per ton, but one specimen from this lead, when sent to London for assay, was said to be worth $3500 per ton.

   Like so many other mining sites the placer gold played out early but when quartz leads were found the town continued to prosper for decades, producing over $20 million dollars in gold. And when the stamp mills finally stopped pounding many residents couldn’t sleep. The silence was too loud. The town has gained lasting fame from Mark Twain who first heard the famous story of ‘The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County’ in the Angels Hotel.

   It soon became common practice around Angels Camp for miners to keep an old trunk filled with their best specimens of ore and gold bearing rock somewhere in their cabin so that they could pull out a particularly good sample on special occasions and declare it to be worth twenty or thirty thousand dollars a ton. They would apply a magnifying glass to the rock and dream of visits to European monarchs who would treat them as royalty, and for a time this dream would make them happier that any reality ever could.

Mark Twain The Young Man - Described

Mark Twain 30 Years of Age

   "Mark Twain is a very good looking man. He is of medium height and moderately slender build, has light brown hair, a reddish brown mustache, regular features and a fresh complexion; and he has a queer way of wrinkling up his nose and half closing his eyes when he speaks. The expression of his face is as calm and imperturbable as that of a sphinx. Looking at him you feel it to be an impossibility that he should ever hurry or be out of temper, and you might suppose him to be incapable of a joke, if it were not for the peculiar twinkle in his merry eyes. His voice is remarkably light and remarkably dry--like some German wines--and it seems to be modulated to only two keys. His style of speaking is unique to the last degree. It is all of a piece with the quality of his humor, and fits him like a glove."

-Newspaper Review of November 30, 1870 Thompsonville, Connecticut speaking tour stop. November 30th is his Birthday so it must have been a good show!

Samuel Langhorne Clemens & Angels Camp, California

Home of Calaveras Coin & Pawn www.calaverascoinandpawn.com     In 1863, a young aspiring journalist named Samuel Langhorne Clemens stayed in this hotel on his way from San Francisco, CA to Virginia City, NV. Here he heard a yarn about a notorious gambler who lost $40 to a con artist in a frog jumping competition. The story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County was first published in New York in 1865.

Not only the young journalist who later changed his name to Mark Twain gained fame through the story. It also put the tiny mining town Angels Camp on the world's map, and and since the late 1800s, the town celebrates the famous writer and its very own frog jumping history with an annual Frog Jumping Jubilee.

Mark Twain Mural in Angels Camp? Is The City Business Friendly?

   Mural on the side of Calaveras Coin & Pawn is a gift to the people that want to help us celebrate the heritage and history of Mark Twain and the Gold Rush.  Bringing back the history of Angels Camp as the mining town that it was and the treasure of the Sierra Foothills that it still is!

Judy begins to paint base on ribbon banner.

    Nothing about Angels Camp needs to be reinvented.... just celebrated, embraced and shared with the world.  Liven up downtown, encourage economic growth of the existing businesses and encourage folks to shop local and visit their very own town.  There is a wealth of golden opportunities. If the city of Angels Camp, city staff including members of the city council, planning commission, and mayor were involved with the downtown business instead of stipulating to death new or updated businesses and would just embrace business friendly practices and help encourage business growth within its own border before reaching outside the town, Angel Camp could thrive instead of becoming a ghost town.

    Calaveras Coin & Pawn believes that by bringing back and celebrating the city's heritage including Mark Twain and his Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, that folks the world over will appreciate, that it will be good business for everyone in Angels Camp.  Tourism is very important to our local economy and by funding this mural for people to enjoy for generations to come we continue to do our part.  We hope the city of Angels Camp commissioners will revisit their sign ordinances, cost of business licenses, inspections and fees that make these tasks onerous and expensive.  

   Lets build on the rich history we have instead of micromanaging, over-branding and re-inventing an already taxed downtown.  What is wrong with frogs, Mark Twain, gold mining, railroads and all the history that surrounds it?  Who decided to make it a "Mountain Sports Camp?"  Is this the direction the citizens of Angels Camp want to go?  How well has it worked for us so far... 

   We need the cooperation of city officials to cut through the bureaucratic red tape that is getting thicker by the day, what happened to the frog with the mining supplies and pick and shovel... who decided gold mining and panning are not mountain sports?  The city of Angels Camp does not like vinyl banners yet it has over 22 of them with various photographs of kayaks and sports frogs?

Fun Facts About Currency: History of Paper Money

History of Paper Money

1690 - The Massachusetts Bay Colony issued the first paper money in the colonies which would later form the United States.

1775 - American colonists issued paper currency for the Continental Congress to finance the Revolutionary War. The notes were backed by the "anticipation" of tax revenues. Without solid backing and easily counterfeited, the notes quickly became devalued, giving rise to the phrase "not worth a continental."

1781 - To support the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress chartered the Bank of North America in Philadelphia as the nation's first "real" bank.

1791 - After adoption of the Constitution in 1789, Congress chartered the first Bank of the United States until 1811 and authorized it to issue paper bank notes to eliminate confusion and simplify trade. The bank served as the U.S. Treasury's fiscal agent, thus performing the first central bank functions.

1861 - On the brink of bankruptcy and pressed to finance the Civil War, Congress authorized the United States Treasury to issue paper money for the first time in the form of non-interest bearing Treasury Notes call Demand Notes.

1865 - Gold Certificates were issued by the Department of the Treasury against gold coin and bullion deposits and were circulated until 1933.

1877 - The Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing started printing all U.S. currency.

1913 - After the financial panics of 1893 and 1907, the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was passed. It created the Federal Reserve System as the nation's central bank to regulate the flow of money and credit for economic stability and growth. The system was authorized to issue Federal Reserve Notes, now the only U.S. currency produced.

1929 - Currency was reduced in size by twenty-five percent and standardized with uniform portraits on the faces and emblems and monuments on the backs.

1990 - A security thread and microprinting were introduced in $50 and $100 notes to deter counterfeiting by technologically advanced copiers and printers.

1996 - Additional security features are added to a newly redesigned $100 Federal Reserve note. The note incorporates both familiar and new features, while remaining recognizably American. Redesigned lower denominations are being introduced at the rate of about one denomination per year.

1997 - The new $50 bill is introduced. The second note to be redesigned to include new security features, the reverse side also includes an enlarged number 50 in the lower right-hand corner to aid the low-vision community.

Fun Fact About Currency: Printing

Printing of Currency

Since October 1, 1877, all U.S. currency has been printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which started out as a six person operation using steam powered presses in the basement of the Department of Treasury. Now, 2,300 Bureau employees occupy twenty-five acres of floor space in two Washington, D.C. buildings. The Treasury also operates a satellite printing plant in Ft. Worth, Texas. Currency and stamps are designed, engraved, and printed twenty-four hours a day on thirty high speed presses. In 1990, at a cost of 2.6 cents each, over seven billion notes worth about $82 billion were produced for circulation by the Federal Reserve System. Ninety-five percent will replace unfit notes and five percent will support economic growth. At any one time, $200 million in notes may be in production. Notes produced in 2002 were the $1 note, 41% of production time; the $5 note, 19%; $10 notes, 16%; $20 note, 15%; and $100 note, 9%. No $2 or $50 notes were printed in 2002.

Angels Hotel Makes Mark Twain & Angels Camp Famous!

When Mark Twain made a visit to the Angels Hotel, no one thought that it would end up making Calaveras County famous. The hotel was originally built from canvas in 1851 by C.C. Lakes, but was rebuilt with only a few years later. It was made out of wood and stone from the local quarry. A few years later he added a second floor boasting 14 rooms and a large overhanging porch.

During the next decade, Mark Twain, who was staying at a friends’ cabin on Jackass Hill, would often visit the Angels Hotel. During one of his first visits, bartender/owner Ross Coon, told Twain about a certain man and his frog. The story goes, he told Twain about the magnificent frog jump that took place on Main Street in front of the hotel and Twain, who thought it was hilarious, went back to the cabin and wrote about it. “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” was first published in the Saturday Press on November 1865. The story was later published in The Californian with the new and current title “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”, and the rest is history.

About 10 years later, owners Mr. Coon and Mr. Lake, decided to sell the hotel to a man who ran it as a first class hotel and changed the name to the Commercial Hotel of Angels Camp. It was sold to various parties throughout the rest of the century and the early part of the twentieth century as well.

Currently, the sidewalk in front of the building houses the commemorative “Frog Hop of Fame” plaques for all of the winners of the annual frog jumping contest, the Jumping Frog Jubilee.

The marker is located on the northeast corner of Main Street and Bird Way in Angels Camp. Don't forget to visit the nearby Angels Camp Museum! 

Calaveras County

Along with Mark Twain’s famous "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" story that spun into an annual fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee, Calaveras County is rich with Gold Rush history and folklore. 

U.S. Currency Standardized 1929

In 1929, U.S. currency was standardized with uniform portraits on faces and emblems and monuments on the backs. Six denominations are now produced and feature the following.

$100 Franklin

Independence Hall

The Real Angels Camp Gold Rush!

No need to reinvent the Rush, the gold rush is still alive and kicking over 150 years later with price over $1500 an ounce.

Come see what your gold is worth... bring it to the gold experts at Calaveras Coin & Pawn.

1283 S Main St. Angels Camp, CA 95222 
(209)736-COIN

Fun Facts About Currency - Counterfeit

Counterfeit Currency

By the end of the Civil War, between one-third and one-half of all U.S. paper currency in circulation was counterfeit. On July 5, 1865, the Secret Service was created under the U.S. Treasury Department. In less than a decade, counterfeiting was sharply reduced. In the past ten years the breakdown of denominations counterfeited has changed dramatically. The total of known $50 and $100 notes counterfeited has increased by sixty percent. The total number of fifty and one hundred dollar notes passed and seized in 1980 was 777,957. The total number of fifty and one hundred dollar notes passed and seized in 1990 was 1,240,840. In 1990, thirty-six percent of the dollar value of known counterfeit currency passed in the U.S. was produced overseas, particularly in Colombia, Italy, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Bangkok. One hundred and thirty-nine domestic counterfeit operations and eighteen foreign counterfeit operations were suppressed in 1990.

Senate Passes H.R. 2453 Mark Twain Commemorative Coin Act

On September 22, 2012, the Senate passed a bill which would authorize the minting and issuance of gold and silver commemorative coins in commemoration of Mark Twain. The bill was originally introduced on July 7, 2011 and passed in the House of Representatives earlier this year on April 18, 2012.

The findings of the bill describe author Samuel Clemens, who wrote under the name of Mark Twain, as one of the best known Americans in the world whose literary work had a long lasting effect on the history and culture of the United States. More than 6,500 editions of his books have been translated in 75 languages.

If the bill becomes law, it would require the issuance of up to 100,000 $5 gold coins and up to 350,000 silver dollars with designs emblematic of the life and legacy of Mark Twain. The gold coins would be struck in 90% purity and have a diameter of 0.85 inches and weight of 8.359 grams. The silver dollars would be struck in 90% silver and 10% copper, with a diameter of 1.5 inches and weight of 26.73 grams.

Both proof and uncirculated qualities of each coin would be produced. The coins may only be issued during the one year period beginning January 1, 2016. The bill provides for a surcharge of $35 per gold coin and $10 per silver coin to be added to the sales price. These surcharges would be distributed to the following:

• Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut
• University of California in Berkeley, California
• Elmira College in New York
• Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Hannibal, Missouri

The Senate passed the bill with two amendments. The first specifies that the surcharges distributed to the University of California are to be for the benefit of the Mark Twain Project at the Bancroft Library. The second requires the Secretary of the Treasury to take such actions necessary to ensure that the commemorative coin program does not result in any net cost to the government.

In order for the bill to become law, the House of Representatives must approve the amendments of the Senate and then the bill must be signed by the President.

This is the third attempt to authorize a commemorative coin program honoring Mark Twain. Previous bills had been introduced in the 110th and 111th Congress, which would have required the issuance of commemorative coins in 2010 and 2013, but neither gained the necessary support to become law.

Mark Twain has been depicted previously on a one ounce gold medallion produced by the United States Mint in 1981 (pictured above). This release was part of the American Arts Gold Medallion series, which were not legal tender but contained a stated amount of gold.

Calaveras Coin & Pawn has an extremely limited stock on hand for purchase in the building that made Mark Twain famous.  Decades old and yet in amazing condition.  Don't miss out on the opportunity to own a piece of American History and celebrate the author of true American literature.

Samuel Clemens Mines For Gold & Instead Publishes Book

   At the start of the Civil War, Samuel Clemens lost his job as a steamboat pilot and travelled west to Nevada and California. He pieced together a ramshackle existence by prospecting for silver, mining for gold, and working as a local reporter and correspondent selling sketches and essays—by Mark Twain—to several newspapers and magazines.

   In 1865, the nearly destitute Clemens spent three months in the California mining camps of Jackass Hill and Angel’s Camp with Jim and William Gillis and their partner, Dick Stoker. It was at the bar inside the Angels Hotel (modern day home of Calaveras Coin & Pawn) that he first heard of the “jumping frog”—the story that launched his literary career.

   Upon his return to San Francisco from the camps, Clemens received an invitation from the popular American humorist, Artemus Ward, to contribute a sketch to his forthcoming travel book about the Nevada Territory. Mark Twain’s story arrived too late to be included in the volume, but Ward’s publisher, George W. Carleton, forwarded the submission to Henry Clapp, who first published it as “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” in theSaturday Press in New York on November 18, 1865. It was immediately reprinted in newspapers and periodicals across the country, including an unauthorized appearance in a Beadle’s Dime Book, the popular and inexpensive fiction series that anticipated today’s mass market paperback books.

   Just over a year later, Webb would collect and edit sketches from Clemens’s scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and publish them in Mark Twain’s first book, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches.

A Collection Of Funny Facts About Money

• An average of 62 searches on How To Counterfeit Money are conducted globally on Google each day.
  (Good thing we sell counterfeit detection equipment.)    :)
   
• As of 2007 it now costs more than 1 cent to produce 1 cent.
   
• The portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the penny shows him facing to the right while all other portraits of presidents on U.S. circulating coins face left.
   
• In 1996, lotteries in North America awarded $52 million in prizes every day – that’s $36,000 every minute, 24 hours a day.
   
• In the 1940s minimum wage was $0.43 per hour.
   
• There are four cars and eleven light posts on the back of a ten-dollar bill.
   
• 45% of every dollar bill you have ever owned has been in a stripper's G-string.   (ewww)
   
• The 1934 USD $1000 bill featured President Grover Cleveland:

Yes We Have One Of These Bills For Purchase

Your One Stop Shop For Currency & Coins
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Did You Know? Three Titles For Mark Twain's Frog Story?

The story heard by Mark Twain in the Angels Hotel (Currently Calaveras Coin & Pawn) had three titles throughout its publishing days. 

•  First was Jim Smiley and his Jumping Frog. 
• Then, it was The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. 
• Then, finally it was called The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.

The most common reprinted title in modern circulation however is "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."

The story was first heard at the current home of Calaveras Coin & Pawn in the Angels Camp Hotel.

Celebrated Jumping Frog.... What?

   1865 short story by Mark Twain, his first great success as a writer, bringing him national attention. The story has also been published as "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog" (its original title) and "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". In it, the narrator retells a story he heard from a bartender, Simon Wheeler, at the Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, about the gambler Jim Smiley. Twain describes him: "If he even seen a straddle bug start to go anywheres, he would bet you how long it would take him to get to wherever he going to, and if you took him up, he would foller that straddle bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road."

   "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is also the title story of an 1867 collection of short stories by Mark Twain. Twain's first book, it collected 27 stories that were previously published in magazines and newspapers.

Angels Camp Makes People Famous?

   Twain first came to national attention in 1865, when he published a comical short story in dialect, which was eventually titled The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. ("You never see a frog so modest and straightfor'ard as he was, for all he was so gifted.") It appeared in newspapers all across the country, was received as a whole new kind of hilariousness and made him famous. "At the close of the Civil War, Americans were ready for a good cleansing laugh, untethered to bitter political argument," writes Twain's recent, so far definitive biographer, Ron Powers. And at least in this first moment of his fame, that's what Twain gave them.

And the Plot Thickens!

Have you ever read the famous Mark Twain Story that helped put Angels Camp back on the map?  The celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County.  If not here is the plot...

The narrator is sent by a friend on an errand to visit an old man, Simon Wheeler, to find an old acquaintance of his friend, Leonidas W. Smiley. The narrator finds Simon at the "decayed mining camp of Angel's" The narrator asks the fat, bald-headed man about Leonidas. Simon responds that he doesn't know a Leonidas Smiley, but he knows of a Jim Smiley. From there Simon tells the story of Jim.

Jim Smiley loves to bet. He bets on anything from the death of Parson Walker's wife to fights between his bulldog pup (named Andrew Jackson) and other dogs.

Once, Jim caught a frog and named it Dan'l Webster. For three months, he trained the frog to jump. At the end of those three months, the frog could jump over more ground than any other. Jim carried the frog around in a box. One day, a stranger to the town asks Jim what is in the box of his. Jim tells that in the box is a frog that can outjump any other frog in Calaveras county.

The stranger looks at the frog and responds that the frog doesn't look any different than the other frogs of Calaveras county, so he mustn't be the best. He tells Jim if he had a frog, he'd bet him $40 that the frog he had could beat Jim's.

Jim agrees to bet, and he gives the box to the stranger to hold while Jim was to catch another frog for the stranger. While Jim is catching the stranger's frog, the stranger pours lead shot into the frog's mouth.

When Jim comes back, they set the frogs up ready to begin. They aligned the frogs up evenly, and on the count of three let them loose. The freshly caught frog (the stranger's) jumped off, while Dan'l Webster didn't budge a bit.

Jim was surprised and disgusted. He gave the money to the stranger and the stranger giddily left. Jim wonders why Dan'l looks all of the sudden so plumpy. He takes the frog and tips him upside down. The frog coughed out handfuls of shot. Jim set the frog down, and chased after the stranger. But the stranger was long gone, and Jim never caught up to him.

At this point in the story, Wheeler is called away by someone on the front porch, and tells the narrator to keep seated. The narrator realizes that Jim Smiley isn't the least bit related to Leonidas W. Smiley, and starts walking away. Simon catches the narrator at the door just before he leaves, and starts telling him another story, about Jim's one-eyed cow. The narrator excuses himself and leaves.