Yet Another Forum Game - Numismatic Go Fish!

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Are you sure that's a fake, fourmack?

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The votes for these coins were pretty spread out, so the winner of this round won by one point. With a total of three votes, the winner is...

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Genuine gold coins from the Oregon Exchange Company are basically priceless for most of us normal folks. The catalogs report $30,000 to $300,000. If you have a genuine piece, it is certainly a magnificent treasure. Almost 100 percent of the pieces you find are replicas, worth zero.

DO NOT CLEAN YOUR COIN. CLEANING RUINS VALUE.

The catalog values above come from The Red Book, 'A Guide Book of United States coins' by R. S. Yeoman. The only decent pictures of a genuine coin (that I can find) are from the Smithsonian, found on Flickr at this link, and at this one for the other side. Acknowledging the Smithsonian as the source, we have small versions of those images here:

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1849 Oregon Exchange Company Ten Dollar Rarity, K-2, XF40 PCGS
1849 $10 Oregon Exchange Co. Ten Dollar XF40 PCGS. K-2, High R.6. Production of Ten Dollar gold coins by the Oregon Exchange Company started after the first Five Dollar pieces reached circulation. Engraved by Victor M. Wallace, the dies omitted the errors of their Five Dollar predecessors by changing T. O. to O. T. (for Oregon Territory) and correcting John Gill Campbell's initial from G to C at the upper obverse border. Interestingly, the initials for George Abernathy and William H. Wilson were removed because, despite their status as co-founders of the Oregon Exchange Company, they did not provide any of the money required to purchase the coinage equipment.
A total of 2,850 Oregon Exchange Company Ten Dollar gold pieces were produced before the company ceased coinage operations on September 1, 1849. These coins, as well as the Five Dollar examples, were not deliberately alloyed with either copper or silver. Instead, the coiners used "pure" gold from various districts in California. As a result, the coins were usually worth 8 to 10 percent more than Federal issues of the same denominations, but it also made their actual value difficult to determine because of questions regarding the purity of the metal. While the coins proved popular in Oregon, where they were welcomed with open arms by merchants and others, their high intrinsic value made them susceptible to melting in California. The softness of pure gold (as compared to alloyed gold) and its susceptibility to rapid wear, abrasion, and/or damage also helps to explain the rarity of these Oregon issues in today's hobby.
Only six Oregon Exchange Company Ten Dollar gold coins have been certified by PCGS (7/02), and this is the first example to appear in one of our auctions. The surfaces display their fair share of abrasions, but the overall appearance is quite a bit smoother than one would expect for a non-alloyed Territorial gold coin that saw 20 points of wear. Struck from the native silver alloyed gold, and as a result the surfaces have a lime-green tinge. Average striking for the coin with usual weakness in the center. This rarity displays the normal number of small abrasions throughout. Although the beaver's fur is not evident, all the devices and lettering are distinct. Jack Klausen thought this specimen was About Uncirculated, but we agree with the grading service that it is a good, all around Extremely Fine specimen. Either way it is one of the finer specimens known. Based on our (Don Kagin's) three decades of research, we count only 17 known specimens with a half dozen impounded in museums and only 3 graded higher (the two finest are AU55). Listed on page 300 of the 2002 Guide Book.
From The Estate of Jack L. Klausen. (NGC ID# ANJW, PCGS# 10291)

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What is your copy made of?