1849 Half Eagle Die Trial - Massachusetts & California Co., Copper

Coin Details

Auction Record

$3,360 AU50BN 08-20-2019 Stack's Bowers

Description

This copper die trial was produced from the dies of the Massachusetts & California Company, a short-lived Gold Rush enterprise that represents one of the most fascinating footnotes in American territorial coinage. The company was organized in the spring of 1849 by a group of Massachusetts investors who pooled their resources to send an expedition to the California goldfields. Unlike most Gold Rush coiners who operated in California, the Massachusetts & California Company produced its coins in the East before departing for the goldfields, intending to use them as a medium of exchange upon arrival. Their $5 gold pieces have been struck in Chicopee, Massachusetts, making them among the very few territorial gold coins produced east of the Mississippi. The obverse features an American Indian figure with a bow, suggestive of the frontier they intended to settle, while the reverse bears the company name and denomination. Copper die trials allowed the company to verify their dies before committing gold planchets to the press. The Massachusetts & California Company's gold coins circulated briefly in California but were soon discovered to be underweight — containing less gold than their face value — which damaged the company's reputation. Their coins are extreme rarities today, with only a small number of genuine gold specimens confirmed. This copper die trial is rarer still, representing the preparatory phase of an ill-fated but historically significant venture.

Rarity Notes

Extremely rare. Copper die trials from the Massachusetts & California Company are virtually undocumented; the firm's gold half eagles are themselves major rarities with fewer than a dozen confirmed specimens.

Cross References

Massachusetts & California Company; California Gold Rush territorial coinage