1849 Ithaca Mining Company Ten Dollar - Copper, K-1

Coin Details

Description

The 1849 Ithaca Mining Company Ten Dollar piece in copper is a deeply enigmatic issue from the California Gold Rush era, named for the city of Ithaca, New York. The Ithaca Mining Company was one of the many eastern-organized ventures that formed during the Gold Rush fever of 1848-1849, when companies of investors and prospectors banded together from communities across the United States to fund expeditions to the California goldfields. The use of the Ithaca name indicates the firm was organized by residents of the upstate New York community, a center of commercial activity in the Finger Lakes region. This copper specimen represents an off-metal striking rather than a circulating gold coin. The ten dollar denomination was a standard and practical value for California commerce, but the copper composition indicates this piece served a different purpose: a die trial, pattern, or presentation piece. Whether gold versions were ever produced for actual circulation remains an open question, as no confirmed gold specimens are currently known to numismatic scholarship. The Ithaca Mining Company ten dollar piece has been the subject of considerable debate among territorial gold specialists. Some researchers classify it as a legitimate, if extremely rare, territorial coinage produced by an actual mining operation, while others have indicated it may be a promotional or fantasy issue created to attract investors rather than to facilitate goldfield commerce. The crude execution of the dies is consistent with either interpretation, as both working territorial coiners and later fabricators would have had limited access to skilled die cutters in the frontier environment.

Rarity Notes

unique in copper. The status of this issue remains debated among territorial gold specialists. No gold specimens are confirmed.

Cross References

NGC ID 31268; Kagin K-1 (Ten Dollar, Copper)