several years, until coins of the United States mint at San Francisco came into use in 1854.
Called "beaver" because the coins bore the stamp of that fur-bearing animal, in imitation, by the way, of an emblem on the fur trade tokens of the NorthWest Company and the seal of the territorial government of 1849–59, this money was the product of pioneer necessity and ingenuity, at a time when the new settlement was using, as media of exchange, beaver skins, wheat, bills, drafts and orders, gold dust and silver coins of Mexico and Peru, all of changing and uncertain value.
The beaver stamp certified that the coins were pure gold, 130 or 260 grains each. Although the United States Government has sole right under the constitution to coin money, yet at that time when the Government was not exercising the right on the Pacific Coast, the pioneers were not molest ed. California men were also stamping gold coins at the same time. Gold dust (nuggets and fine particles) came to Oregon from California in exchange for farm products. The dust was of varying values, due to intrinsic differences, sand and tricky admixtures. Many persons suffered loss in trade. Few had scales to weigh the dust, and few could determine the value. After the beaver coins appeared, dust rose from $11 to $16 an ounce, because of the honest market for gold supplied by the pioneer coiners. The "mint" was operated by the Oregon Exchange Company, a voluntary association, not incorporated. The company made little or no profit. . . .
The pure gold quality of the coins made them 8 or 10 percent more valuable than gold coins of governmental mintage, which contain some 10 percent alloy. In consequence the beaver coins soon disappeared from circulation} were melted into bullion} were taken to the mint at San Francisco and recoined. The premium on the $5 beaver coin was 50 cents, and on the $10 coin, $1.
16
ELWOOD EVANS
When Elwood Evans died in Olympia on January 29, 1898, at
