Monday 4/13/26 Bill Meyer Show Guests and Information
Podcasts on www.BillMeyerShow.com
Facebook – www.Facebook.com/billmeyershow
6:35 Dr. Douglas Small, founder of Prayer At The Heart and we discuss the need for another Great Awakening and the vision of one million Christians praying for one million conversions
Read ALL about it HERE!:
https://prayerattheheart.org/about/leadership-team/
7:10
7:35 State Representative Dwayne Yunker – responds to some scuttle talk at the Jo County Commission, and he also unveils the plan to take out SB 1507 with ANOTHER citizen referendum. Dwayne and State Rep. Diehl are spearheading this “No Tax Clawback”. Keep up with this plan at https://notaxor.com/
8:10 Where Past Meets Present historical segment with Dr. Dennis Powers, retired professor of business law at SOU. www.DennisPowersBooks.com
Beaver Money
By Dennis Powers
In the mid-nineteenth century when Oregon was a territory, U.S. currency was scarce and seldom used. Oregonians used Mexican pesos, beaver pelts, wheat, otter pelts, and even traded blankets as the currency for their transactions. To solve their need for standardized money that was easy to hold and use, the Oregon Provisional Legislature authorized in 1849 the Oregon Exchange Company in Oregon City to mint gold coins.
One side was hand-stamped with a large beaver crouching over a log, hence the name “beaver money”; the other side of these coins had the name of the Oregon Exchange Company and the year, 1849, stamped on it. The exchange melted down gold dust into molten strips and struck 6,000 coins with a five-dollar ($5) domination, and then produced nearly 3,000 with a ten-dollar ($10) value.
Despite being the size of a minted U.S. Half-Eagle, beaver money actually held more gold. In fact, eight-percent (8%) more than the $5 and $10 coins being struck by the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. In months, however, the private firm stopped its work when a key investor left in late 1849 to try and strike it rich in the California gold fields. Although it was illegal federally for a private entity to have minted these coins, settlers used them–even after the U.S. San Francisco Mint was established five years later and ordered all of the illegal coins to be brought in and smelted down.
With U.S. gold coins now available from the U.S. Mint–along with gold dust, nuggets, and U.S. currency–nearly all of the beaver coins disappeared over time. For their historical value and rarity, these coins are now very valuable. With no more than 50 of the $5 and $10 coins believed to be in existence today, one $5 coin sold in 2006 for $125,000 (then in 2014, more than double that) and the $10 coin is valued substantially more. Reproductions of these coins are abundant and not nearly or closely worth as much.
As the price of buying and selling beaver money is typically kept confidential, these coins are extraordinarily valuable.
Sources: “Willamette Heritage: Beaver Money” at Beaver Money; Eugene Register Guard, March 4, 2015, “Eugene dealer snares 165-year-old Oregon ‘Beaver Coin’” at Dealer Purchase.