California Gold Rush
John Berkey’s illustration captures the work of prospectors mining a stream in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California during the 1849 Gold Rush. Although gold was actually discovered the previous year, 1999 will be the 150th anniversary of the rush of many thousands of hopeful "forty-niners" to California to "strike it rich." Prospectors traveled by overland trails from the eastern U.S. and by ships from Europe and South America. The stamp depicts forty-niners working with two of the basic tools of the time, a pan and a rocker which was used to separate particles of gold from gravel and sand.