My arguments are based on the assumption that the structure under Coins / United States should be is based on sub-issuing authorities, not on geography.
- For New Hampshire, the coin in question was authorized by the New Hampshire assembly in 1776 (Yeoman, 66th ed., p.57). So, yes. We should have New Hampshire as a Pre-Federal issuing authority
- For Alaska, the Rural Rehabilitation tokens were issued with the backing of the Federal Government (Yeoman, p.412) for circulation in Alaska. So, yes again.
- For Hawaii (already existing in the catalog), it was an independent Kingdom when its coins were issued.
These are all issuing authorities.
If we look at Georgia and North Carolina gold… The United States already had a gold coinage, struck in Philadelphia since the 1790s, and Georgia and North Carolina were already states of the United States. The Mint Act of 1835 established the Charlotte (NC) and Dahlonega (GA) mints to make United States gold coins in these places, and those mints began striking coins in 1838.
To me it is very clear: The Templeton Reid (GA) and Bechtler (NC) issues are private gold (additionally, it was not struck to the Federal standard, see Yeoman p.371), and should not be listed under a state just because that is where it was struck.
Most of the same arguments are true of the California, Colorado, Oregon and Utah gold. There was no “authority” involved in most cases (Oregon may be semi-official, Yeoman p.388). There was already an authorized United States gold coinage. But private enterprises were started up to turn the newly mined gold into unofficial coins, because they could trade at the same rate as official issues, and there was a local scarcity of official coins.
I agree with you that all these types should be in the catalog, it is just a question of how we build out the structure under United States to accommodate them.
In Yeoman, the category of Private and Territorial Gold sits between the “official” United States issues and private tokens. To me it's a category that makes sense for collecting all these issues that were not made under any legal authority.