1849 Oregon Five Dollar Gold Pieces

About This Coin

The Oregon Exchange Company five-dollar piece of 1849 (Kagin K-1) and later strikings of its design. Early in 1849 Oregon's provisional legislature approved a mint, and when the new territorial governor, Joseph Lane, held such a mint to be unlawful, eight men formed the Oregon Exchange Company and struck five- and ten-dollar pieces at Oregon City from gold brought from California (Wikipedia; E-Sylum, after Kagin). One side shows a beaver over the initials of the company's men and T.O., the letters of Oregon Territory transposed; the other names the company and states the weight of native gold, 130 grains for the five and 260 for the ten (Eckfeldt and Du Bois; Smithsonian, search). The Mint's assayers weighed one five-dollar piece at 127.5 grains, found it 878 thousandths fine with no alloy added, and valued it at $4.82 (Eckfeldt and Du Bois, 1850).