A scarce so called dollar... Portland, OR

Meltdown

Well, here's a neat piece. It was my last impulse purchase from a local show over the weekend. I bought it from a friend who always has interesting medals, historical pieces and whatnot. He's been around a long time and always gets a sale out of me from just telling the story of a certain coin. This one is no exception, and the story is... there's not very much to know about this piece. It was likely minted around 1910 as late as 1918...
(I borrowed a little from the description of scd.com)

"In 1910 a $2.5 million Portland initiative was passed to create a Commission of Public Docks. The "Two Millions For Improvement" is close to this figure, so perhaps the two are one and the same.... This piece was possibly minted at about the same time as the Mount Rainier piece #399, and possibly at or around the time of the AYPE in Seattle. The inaccurate height of Mount Hood of 11,932 was used on a number of old postcards from about the same time period."

He was the first to bring attention to it on socalleddollars.com and over the years he has only ever seen two and until yesterday, he owned them both.
So-Called dollars are funny like that. This one is now listed as a rarity 7 but that does not mean it's extremely valuable. It may be and it may not be.
I think it's cool as hell and it's from my home area so I bought it. Anybody else out there have one?
By the way, Mt. Hood is 11,239 feet

ranshdow

Yeah that's slick as heck

ZoidMeister

I'm guessing the engraver of these dies suffered from dyslexia. The reversal of the numbers and "Two Millions" . . . ?

Does this piece have an HK number?

Z

My most recent Portland related piece.
.

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Maywood

To my way of thinking the rarity of something doesn't really matter if the design is plain and uninteresting. This medal fits into that category.

Zoins

@Meltdown said:
Well, here's a neat piece. It was my last impulse purchase from a local show over the weekend. I bought it from a friend who always has interesting medals, historical pieces and whatnot. He's been around a long time and always gets a sale out of me from just telling the story of a certain coin. This one is no exception, and the story is... there's not very much to know about this piece. It was likely minted around 1910 as late as 1918...
(I borrowed a little from the description of scd.com)

"In 1910 a $2.5 million Portland initiative was passed to create a Commission of Public Docks. The "Two Millions For Improvement" is close to this figure, so perhaps the two are one and the same.... This piece was possibly minted at about the same time as the Mount Rainier piece #399, and possibly at or around the time of the AYPE in Seattle. The inaccurate height of Mount Hood of 11,932 was used on a number of old postcards from about the same time period."

He was the first to bring attention to it on socalleddollars.com and over the years he has only ever seen two and until yesterday, he owned them both.
So-Called dollars are funny like that. This one is now listed as a rarity 7 but that does not mean it's extremely valuable. It may be and it may not be.
I think it's cool as hell and it's from my home area so I bought it. Anybody else out there have one?
By the way, Mt. Hood is 11,239 feet

That's a great medal. I love mountain themes so it's a winner for me

socalleddollars.com is owned by @ScarsdaleCoin so perhaps he can comment on this?

Zoins

Here's some info from @JRay123 with a photo from Dan West which looks the same as the new @Meltdown specimen!

Is Dan a member of the forums?

@JRay123 said:
329a) Port of Portland with Mount Hood on the reverse. In 1910 a $2.5 million Portland initiative was passed to create a Commission of Public Docks. The "Two Millions For Improvement" is close to this figure, so perhaps the two are one and the same, but at this point I am not sure. This piece was possibly minted at about the same time as the Mount Rainier piece #399, and possibly at or around the time of the AYPE in Seattle. The inaccurate height of Mount Hood of 11,932 was used on a number of old postcards from about the same time period, although it can also be found on earlier postcards and even later ones all the way up to World War 2. A more common and more accurate published height that was used over the same time period was a measurement of 11,225 feet from 1867. At this point I am not sure of the origin of the 11,932 measurement. For other early 20th century "harbor map" so called dollars look at #81, #329b, and #399. Gilt Copper, 38mm, A strong very rare. Image courtesy of Dan West.

Ref: https://socalleddollar.com/ahBuildings.html#329a)

Meltdown

@ZoidMeister said:
I'm guessing the engraver of these dies suffered from dyslexia. The reversal of the numbers and "Two Millions" . . . ?

Does this piece have an HK number?

My most recent Portland related piece.
.

HK#UNL I believe is what was written on the 2x2
I was thinking the same thing at least in regards to the height of the mountain. It very well could be an accident.
Easy enough to get wrong I suppose 11,932 instead of 11,239.

Meltdown

@Zoins said:
Here's some info from @JRay123 with a photo from Dan West which looks the same as the new @Meltdown specimen!

Is Dan a member of the forums?

He is not a member here, but yes. Dan is the person I purchased the coin from, he's a super interesting collector. Like I said, he often gets a sale out of me just sharing some history.

ZoidMeister

@Zoins said:
Here's some info from @JRay123 with a photo from Dan West which looks the same as the new @Meltdown specimen!

Ref: https://socalleddollar.com/ahBuildings.html#329a)

.
Thanks for the link. Very informative.

Z

Zoins

Here's another specimen:

Ref: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1910-portland-oregon-great-fresh-3835141716

Zoins

Here's medal with the same 11,932 elevation done by A.G. Long of Portland, Oregon for the September 1919 Pacific Coast Association Fire Chiefs Convention.

Ref: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/portland-ore-pacific-coast-assn-fire-2014381180

Meltdown

@Zoins - Very cool. I appreciate the extra sleuthing. I wasn't able to see what either had sold for but interesting nonetheless.
Thanks.

ricko

I like that SCD, perhaps because I have been to Mt. Hood... A beautiful mountain. Cheers, RickO

Zoins

@Meltdown said:
@Zoins - Very cool. I appreciate the extra sleuthing. I wasn't able to see what either had sold for but interesting nonetheless.
Thanks.

Agree it's interesting info. I'm not able to see what they sold for either, but it's available, for a fee.

Now I want to figure out what A. G. Long's first and middle name are, like how F.C.C. Boyd is Frederick Charles Cogswell and S. D. Childs is Schubal Davis.

Meltdown

Mt. Hood is in my backyard.

Zoins

@Meltdown said:
Mt. Hood is in my backyard.

Awesome! Mt. Hood is a great peak!

Have you been to the top? I had a lot of fun summiting but that was a long time ago now!

Meltdown

Only as high as the upper most lift will take you. I've hiked all over it but have no interest in a glacier climb to the summit. People die up there every year... some of them don't ever get found. No thanks.
In the summer, there are a bunch of mountain bike trails you can ride and the chair lift takes you back up... it's great.

Zoins

@Meltdown said:
Only as high as the upper most lift will take you. I've hiked all over it but have no interest in a glacier climb to the summit. People die up there every year... some of them don't ever get found. No thanks.

Tell me about it! While hiking down from the summit, the hiker behind me slipped and slid a few hundred feet into a fumarole! Luckily he didn't fall in that deep and we were able to pull him out, though it took up most of the day to get him out and off the mountain!