My Crusty Original Denver NEWP - Flame away!
Lakesammman
Posts: 17,461 ✭✭✭✭✭
I like it - that's all that matters. Nice, crusty and original. 
PS - The coins I sold walking the floor just about paid for it - who says the market is weak for nice stuff??
PS - The coins I sold walking the floor just about paid for it - who says the market is weak for nice stuff??
"My friends who see my collection sometimes ask what something costs. I tell them and they are in awe at my stupidity." (Baccaruda, 12/03).I find it hard to believe that he (Trump) rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world. (Putin 1/17) Gone but not forgotten. IGWT, Speedy, Bear, BigE, HokieFore, John Burns, Russ, TahoeDale, Dahlonega, Astrorat, Stewart Blay, Oldhoopster, Broadstruck, Ricko, Big Moose, Cardinal.
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What can you tell us about it?
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
That's a real piece of history there.
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
Check out some of my 1794 Large Cents on www.coingallery.org
I started a thread about this a while back. Congrats!
Check out my current listings: https://ebay.com/sch/khunt/m.html?_ipg=200&_sop=12&_rdc=1
Thats a mighty fine original piece. From who did you buy it?
What follows is from the ANR auction catalog.
1849 Oregon $10 gold. K-2. Rarity-6+. VF-20 (PCGS).
A rare offering of this important and elusive territorial issue from the Pacific Northwest. Orange-yellow gold surfaces show mottled golden and coppery toning with scattered dark flecks. The surfaces show a scattering of tiny contact marks and minor surface granularity, but the sharpness is actually very good for this poorly struck issue. The obverse is nicely rendered, leading Don Kagin to note that this piece shows "one of the most complete beavers known" when he described this piece in 1983. The reverse shows the typical soft central strike, but the peripheral reverse legend OREGON EXCHANGE COMPANY is complete, as is the denomination TEN D. and the word GOLD above. None of the marks are individually notable, though together they link this piece with its provenance; we do note a few tiny rim nicks under 9:00 on the reverse. The overall visual appeal is pleasing for this usually ugly issue, though even ugly examples find ready buyers, since attractive specimens can perhaps be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Struck with California gold dust beginning in the spring of 1849, the coins of the Oregon Exchange Company were among the most intrinsically valuable of all private coins of this period, with metallic content worth some 10% over their stated value (i.e. their melt value was roughly $11). Their rarity today is undoubtedly a function of the profit to be made by melting them. Though 2,850 specimens of this denomination are said to have been struck—less than half the number of the rare 1849 Oregon $5 coins produced—today fewer than 20 are known, a few of which are impounded in collections such as that of the Smithsonian Institution. PCGS has graded a specimen on only seven occasions, only two of which were graded higher than EF and none of which merited a Mint State assignment. The Garrett coin had a planchet flaw and, though graded VF-20 in that sale, did not have as much obverse detail as this piece; it still brought $40,000 in 1980. The Zabriskie sale of 1909, one of the greatest offerings of territorial coins ever, included one that was mounted and holed. A net-graded VF-20 coin, cleaned and showing a large planchet defect, was sold in the 2000 ANA sale for $50,600. The beautiful EF-40 (PCGS) Klausen piece, sold by Heritage in 2002 and to date the only specimen sold by that firm, realized $126,500. The only other offerings listed by Dannreuther-Garrett since 1993 were for the same piece, a gilt tin specimen offered twice by Stack's. For a pioneer type collector, there are few issues more challenging to locate and acquire than the Oregon $10, and we have no doubt that eager competition will greet the sale of this specimen.
PCGS Population: 2 in VG to VF; 5 finer (AU-55 finest).
The Coins of the Oregon Exchange Company, and Oregon's Other "Money"
Attracted by the exciting news from California, many settlers in the Oregon Territory headed south to the gold fields where they spent the summer and autumn of 1848. At the time no minting or assaying facilities were in operation there, so they had no choice but to return to Oregon with gold dust and nuggets.
In February 1849, petitions were submitted to the Legislature of the territory, seeking the establishment of a mint. On February 15, an appropriate act was passed, but on March 3 it was vetoed by Governor Joseph Lane, who felt that this would be in violation of Federal laws. As round trip mail to Washington, D.C., took two months or so at the time, there was no way to secure a ruling.
To remedy the situation in a practical way, eight partners formed the Oregon Exchange Company, in Oregon City, and established a private mint. The last initials of the partners were used on the obverse of the coins produced, their names being W.K. Kilborne, Theophilus Magruder, James Taylor, George Abernathy, W.H. Willson, William H. Rector, J.G. Campbell, and Noyes Smith.
It is believed that about 6,000 of the $5 coins were made and 2,850 of the $10 value. These were used extensively in local commerce. In time, nearly all were melted, leading to the rare characteristic of these pieces earlier mentioned.
Less well known is Oregon's other curious "money,” as delineated below.
In August 1944, The Numismatist included an article, "An Abernethy ‘Rock’: A Medium of Exchange,” by Stephen H. Bibler. The story was told of George Abernethy (or Abernathy) who came to Oregon in May 1840 and opened a store in competition with the Hudson’s Bay Company monopoly. Trading was conducted with whatever cash was on hand, but mainly by trading and bartering and by a system of credits and debits. The account continued:
"Abernethy soon found that he had need for fractional money necessary to make change in his store. The inconvenience of trading for the full amount of a merchant order, or occasional cash, or the farmer’s produce, was annoying both to the merchant as well as the customer. He overcame this difficulty by creating his own makeshift money.
"There was a fairly large Indian population attracted to the salmon fishing at the Willamette Falls. In their passing time these Indians would make arrow heads and spear heads out of the flint rock. Abernethy gathered from these work piles of flint rock a number of small pieces about the size of a domino, or about half the size of a man’s thumb, only thinner. He shaped these pieces of rock to proper size and glued around them short strips of tough paper, onto which he inscribed in ink by longhand the year date, his last name, the word ‘change,’ and the denomination or cash amount.
"These were then used and passed out for change in his store for the sum as indicated thereon. There is no information available as to the amount or volume of these ‘rocks’ issued. It is known that there were different denominations and they are shortly mentioned in various history books. The only known existing specimen is the 35¢ denomination in the collection of the Oregon Historical Society.”
Well, it seems that Abernathy rocks are even rarer than Oregon Exchange Company $10 gold pieces! Abernathy, incidentally, was serving as governor of the provisional government of what became Oregon at the time, a fact that may have aided the circulation power of his unusual currency. Abernathy assumed office in July 1845 and served until Oregon's territorial government was organized in February 1849.
From Kagin's 1983 ANA sale, August 1983, Lot 3683.