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1820 Northwest Company Token

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Medals & Tokens Start Price:1,000.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
1820 Northwest Company Token
IMPORTANT NOTE ON BUYERS PREMIUMS:

Lot 100 to 343 have a premium of 15%.

The rest of the sale is 19.5% as noted in the listing.

Lot Pick Up: Holabird-Kagin Americana,
3555 Airway Drive Ste #309,
Reno NV 89511,
Sunday - December 9, 10am-4pm
During the 1840`s there was a migration along the Oregon Trail. Earlier, few people lived there except representatives of the Hudson`s Bay Company, the Northwest Company and other fur traders. Residents were not certain whether the area was controlled by Britain or by the United States. Around 1820 the Northwest Company had several forts or trading posts in the area which served as headquarters for transactions with the Umpqua Indians and other tribes.

This 1820 dated token, holed at the top for suspension was minted by John Walker and Company in Birmingham, England. It would be exchanged for one beaver skin redeemable for merchandise at one of the company`s forts. These tokens were highly prized by the Native Indians who were sometimes buried with their earthly treasures. In the 1960s, on the banks of the Umpqua River an Indian gravesite was found containing a skull, 26 of the 1820 Northwest Company tokens, and a copper kettle which served as repository for the tokens.

Listed in the United States Guide Book of Coins at $2750 in very good, and $7000 in fine. (Yeoman, page 74). This specimen is chocolate brown, AU lettering visible with planchet porosity and pitting on the obverse. Reverse very good, as dug. -62000