Beth V. writes: I have an 1849 Twenty Dollar coin from the Cincinnati Mining & Trading Company and I am looking for any information regarding it’s worth (if anything), and if there are any collectors you may know of who may be looking for this particular coin. Any information you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Kindest Regards, Beth
The Cincinnati Mining & Trading Co. was one of the private firms that made “emergency” gold coinage for commerce during the Gold Rush period in California (1849-1856). Only a $5 and $10 coin were issued. No $20 coins were struck. Very few of these private issues survived since their gold fineness was too low for acceptability and so most were melted.
Only one $5 gold piece is known to exist and the $10 gold pieces are very rare (last auction price: $200,000). There are many replicas in base metal, brass or white metal, that are either museum copies or made for some other commercial use. A well known copy of the $10 coin has the word “TRADING” spelled as “TRACING”. Copies have no specific value.
See: Territorial Gold Coins – California Issuers
