1849 Massachusetts & California Co. Five Dollar - Copper, K-5b

Coin Details

Description

This is a copper striking of a Massachusetts & California Company five-dollar die pair of 1849. 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. NGC lists it by its Kagin number; the sources we read do not say when the base-metal strikings of the company's dies were made. Catalogue number: K-5b.

Cross References

K-5b