1849 Massachusetts & California Company Five Dollar - Fantasy Restrike

Coin Details

Description

This piece in the 1849 Massachusetts & California Company five-dollar design is catalogued by PCGS as a fantasy restrike. The Massachusetts and California Company was organized at Northampton, Massachusetts early in 1849, with Josiah Hayden as president, the Rev. F. P. Tracy as its agent and William H. Hayden as assayer, and planned to coin gold in California. Its five-dollar design shows a shield with a mounted vaquero, held by a bear and a stag above a ribbon reading ALTA, and a wreath around FIVE D. with the company name and 1849. Adams thought the few gold pieces were trial strikings, alloyed with copper unlike most California gold, and that the silver and copper pieces were made in the East. Greysheet lists a later restrike of the design under the name of Nagy; the sources we read do not give its metal. PCGS number 10234.