Object Details
- Cincinnati Mining & Trading Company
- Description (Brief)
- One (1) 10 dollar coin
- United States, 1849
- Obverse Image: Male bust facing left, wearing a feathered headdress.
- Obverse Text: CINCINNATI MINING & TRADING COMPANY.
- Reverse Image: Left facing eagle with shield clutching branch and arrows.
- Reverse Text: CALIFORNIA TEN DOLLARS, 1849.
- Description
- This obscure company had a few five- and ten-dollar gold pieces struck for it sometime during the last third of 1849. Broderick & Kohler (who also coined for the Miners Bank and the Pacific Company), were probably responsible for the manufacture of this issue. The dies were likely made in Cincinnati, so that part of the firm's name was accurate.
- We know very little about this issue. We don't know how many fives and tens were struck, although it seems likely that most were melted down. The Broderick & Kohler operation was discredited once rumors of the debasement of some of its products began to circulate, and the simplest way of dealing with substandard coins was to melt them down and start over.
- We do know the following. The Cincinnati Mining & Trading Co. coins were struck by hand, in the time-honored manner of Antiquity. And we know that the coins' obverse and reverse designs represented a major departure from other people's money. The crude Liberty on the obverse bore a feather headdress, the first time this concept appeared on an American coin, while nothing else like the reverse eagle would be seen, anywhere, for decades.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Mint
- 1849
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.3000
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- catalog number
- 1985.0441.3000
- Object Name
- gold coin
- coin
- Physical Description
- gold (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 28.3 mm; 1 1/8 in
- place made
- United States
- Related Publication
- Glossary of Coins and Currency Terms
- Related Web Publication
- http://americanhistory.si.edu/coins/glossary.cfm
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
- Coins, Currency and Medals
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_741880
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-6322-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
