1849 Pelican Company Two-and-a-Half Dollar - Brass, K-2

Coin Details

Description

The 1849 Pelican Company Two-and-a-Half Dollar piece in brass is a deeply mysterious item from the California Gold Rush era. The Pelican Company takes its name from the pelican, a bird with rich symbolic associations in California where the brown pelican is native to the Pacific coast and was later adopted as part of the state's iconography. Beyond this evocative name, remarkably little is known about the firm, its principals, or the scope of its operations. This brass specimen represents the K-2 designation in the Kagin catalog and was clearly not intended as a circulating gold quarter eagle. The brass composition immediately identifies it as a trial piece, pattern, or a fantasy issue produced outside the normal channels of territorial gold commerce. The quarter eagle denomination was the smallest standard gold coin denomination in the American monetary system. The status of the Pelican Company pieces remains a subject of scholarly debate. Some territorial gold specialists consider them legitimate products of an actual Gold Rush enterprise that simply left very little documentary trail, while others have indicated they may be fantasy pieces created at a later date to fill collector demand for California territorial gold varieties. Regardless of its ultimate classification, the Pelican Company quarter eagle in brass is among the most intriguing mysteries of California numismatics.

Rarity Notes

Extremely rare and of debated authenticity. The Pelican Company issues may be unique or known in only one or two examples in each metal.

Cross References

NGC ID 31053; Kagin K-2 (Brass, Quarter Eagle); Pelican Company attribution tentative