GUEST: I picked it up at an auction.

I collect Civil War stuff, and it was dated 1862.

And I thought it was a beautiful piece of art.

APPRAISER: And so what is it?

GUEST: I believe it's a personal seal from a, a man in California.

APPRAISER: It did not start out life as a personal seal.

It's a cane topper; it's presentational.

And when it was presented, somebody chose to present it as a personal seal so it could be on their desk.

It's gold-plated, also known as rolled gold.

The piece is inscribed on various panels, and it's inscribed "G.M.

Burke, County Recorder of San Francisco, by his friends."

And then it has five initials, and then it's dated April 1861.

And you can see that all around the exterior.

The piece has the initials of the recipient on the underside.

And we can see them right there.

That's not the most interesting piece on this.

What is the most interesting piece is the top of it.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And do you know what's the top, in the top of it?

GUEST: Uh, it's got gold flakes, I can see that.

APPRAISER: Sure-- so it's actually gold quartz.

It's a quartz which has gold flakes naturally set into it.

Gold quartz was discovered in California in 1850, and it was very quickly employed into pieces such as this.

We see a lot of cane toppers on ROADSHOW, and often, the individual that it's presented to is not really of any major historical significance.

And that's sort of the case with this piece.

But what is so unusual is the gold quartz.

In 2019, an identical cane, or cane topper, came up with a different inscription, and it sold for $2,250.

GUEST: Wow, so... APPRAISER: So if I were to see this come up for auction today, I'd say somewhere between about $2,000 and $3,000.

GUEST: Wow, well, thank you.

Thank you, appreciate it.