1849 $5 Oregon MS(PCGS#10288)
1849 $5 Oregon MS (PCGS#10288)
February 2011 Pre-Long Beach Auction #62
- 拍卖行
- Goldberg Auctioneers
- 批号
- 2408
- 等级
- AU-55
- 价格
- 473,298
- 详细说明
- A decent strike for this great rarity with faded rose color overtones. During the generations before the California Gold Rush, the inhabitants of the Willamette Valley, Oregon, like those of the entire Pacific Northwest, managed to survive on a barter economy. The primary media of exchange, in addition to a meager supply of foreign silver and gold coins, were beaver pelts and wheat; the latter became legal tender by act of the Provisional Government of 1843. By the spring of 1848, the area's population had grown to 13,000, its largest settlement being Oregon City, population 800. On Aug. 9, 1848, gold dust from California arrived aboard the brig <I>Henry,</I> and within two months an estimated two-thirds of the Territory's male population had left for the California mining district, where they founded Hangtown (later called Placerville). By mid-January 1849, some $400,000 in gold dust reached Oregon, with the usual results: perpetual disputes over its weight and fineness, the necessity of weighing and testing, and petitions by the residents for a local mint. The Oregon Exchange Company stepped up to the plate as the first private mint producer in the region; the mint's output comprised 6,000 $5 pieces, along with 2,850 of the $10 gold.<BR><BR>The present example shows light rub and strike softness on the beaver and log, along with assorted small scuffs and surface nicks characteristic of the soft, unalloyed gold. A bit of softness is also visible around OREGON and the N of NATIVE. Much luster remains, we might add, and the surfaces tend to be otherwise very appealing.<BR><BR>Concerning the unusual lettering along the obverse rim, the Oregon Exchange Company consisted of several prominent residents of the area: Kilborn, Magruder, Taylor, Abernethy, Willson, Rector (Gill) Campbell, and Smith. Their initials K. M. T. A. W. R. G. S. on the five dollar gold pieces, which also depict a beaver on a log with two laurel sprigs (bordering the date). The initials T.O. (rather