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AZ - 1863 - Cerro Colorado. Arizona Mining Company 5 cent Silver Scrip *Territorial* :

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Western Americana Start Price:7,500.00 USD Estimated At:15,000.00 - 32,500.00 USD
AZ - 1863 - Cerro Colorado. Arizona Mining Company 5 cent Silver Scrip *Territorial* :
The appearance of the Cerro Colorado Arizona Mining Company scrip note in the John J Ford Collection stirred a lot of emotion out of a few of us, especially me (FH). I researched the company years ago for the Garbani Sale in 2002 when we sold one of the rare Arizona Mining Company stock certificates with a vignette of the company’s key mine, the Heintzelman. The majority of the story from that catalog is here, integrated into the text that I have added. Since that time in 2002, we sold a collection of survey books from the Sopori Ranch (1859-61) that contained important notes regarding Apache attacks. That archive was further evidence the Apaches had run off all the miners in the region, and without military protection, would maintain their control. Midway through the Civil War in late 1863-4, control of the region was regained, and mines reopened.

The appearance of the note caused me to go into a much more in-depth search of information. One of the interesting things I found from my early research was that the company explored the making of private coins, discussed by Guido Kustel in his letters to Heintzelman. Unfortunately, we do not know if they actually made any because none of those coins survive today. So when this 5 cent note appeared, I went on a new search in the historical record for scrip.

The search revealed significant information. Cerro Colorado was the discovery, supposedly, of the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company. While Spaniards or Mexicans may have discovered the mine in prior decades or even the previous century, it was nonetheless brought into production in 1857. Its old Spanish or Mexican name was lost to that time (1757-1857). That company reincorporated in 1860 under the same name and did it again in 1863 under the new name of the Arizona Mining Company. But it was not the first Arizona Mining Company. In February 1855, a group of men incorporated the Arizona Mining Company in San Francisco. The Company “was found with the object of opening certain silver mines, . . . which, according to history had been worked by the Mexicans . . . with extraordinary success.” “Planche de la Plata . . . yielded masses of pure silver weighing more than 20 arrobas, a Spanish weight of 25 pounds.” “Necessity, however, arising from remoteness of situation, and the war hoop of the savage, had long since occasioned the abandonment of this mine. A Frenchman, Count Rousset, obtained a grant for the mine from Santa Ana, but the Mexicans captured and executed him.” The Arizona Mining Company was formed in late 1854 by 20 organizers from San Francisco who had found a lump of silver weighing 21 pounds. When they returned to San Francisco with the silver and copper ores, they filed the appropriate papers for incorporation. But the silver mine was soon disregarded, and all focus went to the copper mine, which became known as the Arizona Mine. Reports of its successes were soon published in journals, such as the Mining Magazine, edited by William Tenney (“Arizona Copper Mines” pp 384-5, Fall, 1857) and in the Canadian Journal of Industry Science and Art (“The Arizona Copper Mine” by James Gilbert, September, 1857, pp321-324). Other reports soon hit the western press. The Alta California carried several articles on Heintzelman’s efforts and those of his competitor Sylvester Mowrey. The Alta boasted: “The mines are reckoned to contain the richest silver lodes in the known world.” (9/7/1857 report of Correspondent published 12/25/1857)

The scrip is not mentioned in Samuel Peter Heintzelman’s Journals, published in 1980 (Diane North). The Company had continued problems paying workers, and it would appear that if scrip was used, it would have been mentioned because pay in any form was one of the things in desperate need by the Sonora Exploring and Mining Co. Mowrey’s competing company, the Arizona Land and Mining Company, worked property away from Cerro Colorado, so it is unlikely that its shortened name of the “Arizona Mining Company” issued scrip at Cerro Colorado, since they were operating properties elsewhere.

The likely period of issue for this scrip is late 1863 or early 1864 at the time when miners returned to the mine after it and the Apaches sacked the surrounding area in 1861. The scrip is made in the style, size and manner similar to Federal fractional currency, and this period in American history was rife with fractional issues, both public and private. The fact that there was little or no circulating coin was also of great importance, because Mexican and Apache warriors would steal coin if it was present, a simple fact of history from the past two decades in the area. Paper currency presented a form of money that was of no interest to bandits.

The currency itself does not have the name of a printer. Root, Anthony & Co. in New York printed the Arizona Mining Company stock certificate in 1863. The two pieces are different enough that no real parallel comparison or assumption of the printer can be made, except perhaps that the printing of the scrip note is rather crude in some respects, and does not resemble the quality of the New York printing job. The reverse printing on the note is not aligned with the obverse printing, and the printing quality overall is somewhat crude, certainly not close to the quality of the Arizona MC stock certificate. The suggestion of a printer is therefore obvious: 1) the piece shows no printer along the lower edge 2) the piece is crude, both front and back 3) the piece is for 5 cents, suggesting an expensive NYC printer was not used 4) The office of the Arizona Mining Company was in Tubac. This suggests that the piece was printed at the office of the Arizonan newspaper, established in 1858, with a printing press brought in by the Wrightson brothers who worked for Hientzelman and his crew. As such, it is certainly one of the earliest Arizona imprints extant.







Tubac, the site of the Arizona Mining Company’s main office, and where this note was probably printed.

From: The Apache Country: A Tour Through Arizona and Sonora By J. Ross Browne.





This scrip note is not only incredibly rare, but the size is very unusual as well. There is a “5” in the center in the style of a first issue fractional back and “Valle Un Media De Plata Compania” in green larger font on the reverse. The note is in Very Fine condition with light discoloration and faint creasing. This is the earliest known Arizona scrip and perhaps one of the most historically significant pieces of western scrip in existence. The reverse details the same information as the front in Spanish, rather than English
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