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Annotation

In June of 1848, Colonel Sutter presented Marshall's first-find scale of gold to Capt. Joseph L. Folsom, U.S. Army Assistant Quartermaster at Monterey. Folsom had journeyed to Northern California to verify the gold claim for the U.S. Government. In August of that year, as evidence of the find, the gold nugget and other samples of California gold to Washington, D.C., for delivery to President James K. Polk and for preservation at the National Institute. This letter from Folsom accompanied the sample and testified to it's veracity.