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Latouche, Alaska Rare Nugget Token - Silver Plated Brass

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Exonumia - Tokens Start Price:1,000.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
Latouche, Alaska Rare Nugget Token - Silver Plated Brass
SOLD
3,100.00USDto O*********r+ buyer's premium (713.00)
This item SOLD at 2016 May 14 @ 13:02UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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Nickel plated brass! A remarkable find. The name on the token "Charles E. Sealey" has been plated gold.

Introduction to this Nugget.

The Latouche gold nugget token bearing Charles Sealey’s name is considered one of the great Western monetary pieces from the Alaska Gold Rush. It is the very essence of why people collect pioneer minor coinage – the history behind the coin opens up new doors to learning about our past in exciting ways. In researching the Latouche piece, semi-obscure aspects of the Alaska Gold Rush came to light: prospecting on a remote Alaskan island, natural multiple-metal nuggets, lives of prospectors and merchants in an evolving mining scene and how prospecting for gold can lead to the production of other metals. It also focuses on a great Alaska Gold Rush promotion, the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition (AYPE) held in Seattle in 1909.

Background

There are several gold nugget tokens, and this is one of the three great gold nugget token rarities, the others from Everett, Washington made during the Alaska Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909; and the third from Gustave Priesner of McCarthy, Alaska. Regardless, there are less than six different nugget tokens known, and all relate directly to the Alaska gold mining business in the pre-1900 era. Both the Everett, Washington and the Latouche pieces are made with nearly identical “gold pan” planchets, unique to these two nugget tokens. Each appears to date from the 1909 period.

The nuggets adhered to the Latouche tokens are of very special significance. They come from Latouche Island in Prince William Sound, located south west of Valdez. The community of Latouche no longer exists, but it was on the northern end of a small island (12 miles long, 3 miles wide) at the Western entrance to Prince William Sound. The mines were all at the northern end of the island. Latouche Island is located along the waterway route to Valdez, and as such, was a perfect target for prospectors on the way to the goldfields. The nineteenth century mining history of the region is difficult to unravel, but prospectors logically panned for gold first, and after discovering metals, including copper, generally looked upstream for the lode deposits. This is how the Latouche copper deposit was discovered.

Klondike/Alaska Mining Gold Rush

Prospecting for gold and copper appears to have seriously begun with the Klondike/Alaska gold rush in 1897.

The Latouche Discovery

The Latouche discoveries, though, were among the very first. Mining claims were staked at the Bonanza mine on July 7, 1897 by Andrew K. Beatson, M. D. Gladhaugh, W. Ripstein, W. B. Heidorn, P. Jackson and W. B. Hunt. The men had been led to the site by local native Alaskans who had used chalcocite and chalcopyrite from the copper deposits to make black paint which they used to paint their canoe paddles black. Gladhaugh was particularly keen to find the spot since he had discovered the Gladhaugh mine at Ellamar earlier that year. The Gladhaugh mine went on to become another of the very important copper producing mines in Alaska.

Latouche Ore Deposits

The placer gold mines and prospects of Latouche were the result of contact type ore deposits between greenstone and greywacke, interlayered with shale and limestone. These contact zones were filled with quartz, carrying chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite and pyrite, with occasional reported galena. The early geologic reports published by the USGS all show the strong presence of gold and silver in the ores. Weed (The Copper Mines of the World, 1907) reported 8% copper and one ounce per ton silver in 1907 at the Bonanza, and the presence of galena at other mines and prospects nearby.

The nuggets of the streams coming from the ore sources on Latouche Island were probably all mined early in the local mining history. That placer mining undoubtedly gave way to the mining of the chalcopyrite deposits, which became more successful through time. The known fact that they carried copper, gold and silver is significant, as the nuggets on the Latouche tokens all appear to have the three metals represented. This renders them unique.

The Bonanza Mine

The Bonanza Mine was originally staked July 7, 1897 by A. K. Beatson et al as discussed earlier. It was later renamed in his honor. The Bonanza was so rich that it came to the attention of the Morgan-Guggenheim group (J. P. Morgan and Meyer Guggenheim and sons), who controlled the Copper River copper mines. Beatson reportedly sold control of the mine to “a New York capitalist” in the spring of 1900. This was probably in the form of a lease-option to the Guggenheims, J. P. Morgan, or their agent. Beatson continued to manage the property through at least 1907, and that year the Guggenheims considered outright purchase of the property.



In 1906 when (mining engineer) John Hays Hammond had gone to the Yukon with Daniel (Guggenheim) to look over the properties, they began to think in terms of Alaska and its potential…The lure was first copper. Then it became all Alaska... Daniel’s dream of 1906 then led to what the wags and cynics of Wall Street called ‘the Second Purchase of Alaska.’ During its lifetime, the Bonanza produced a reported 182 million pounds of copper, 1.5 million ounces of silver and 484 ounces of gold. The Guggenheim’s gamble paid off.

Charles Sealey, Alaska Miner and Businessman

Charles E. Sealey was born in January 1866 in Canada to parents born in New York. Sealey joined the Klondike gold rush in 1897. His name does not appear in the 1900 census, typical of many of the miners in the Alaska-Klondike gold regions for the period. By 1909 Sealey had moved to Valdez, and called himself a “copper miner,” according to census ad directory records. In 1910 he was 43 years of age and still single and unmarried.

By 1915 in Valdez, Sealey owned the Pinzon Cigar Company (sometimes called the Pinzon Liquor Company) and was president of the Sealey-Davis Mining Co. as shown in the 1915-16 Polk Alaska Directory. While this sounds impressive, it really is not. The Sealey-Davis MC is not listed in any of Weed’s Mines Handbooks. It is obvious: that Sealey had a prospect and the beginnings of a “mining company”, but it never got off the ground past the prospect stage.

The Pinzon Cigar and/or Liquor Company was a business jointly owned by Richard J. Gelineau and Sealey. It appears to have been a normal western saloon, selling liquor and cigars with a good stock of billiard tables for play.

The Latouche General Store

There were two general stores in Latouche. The main store was owned and operated by the Latouche Copper Company (owner and operator of the Bonanza Copper Mine), its successor the Beatson Copper Company, and later Kennecott. The town was generally a company town. It is likely that there was a separate manager in 1909, which may have been Charles Sealey.

By the time the 1920 census was taken, Sealey, then 53 years old, was managing a boarding house in Valdez. Polk’s 1923 Alaska and Yukon Directory shows Sealey and Gelineau running a general merchandise business in Latouche in 1923. The Latouche token shows only Sealey’s name, indicating sole proprietorship. The question arises whether Sealey had acquired the store long before this when he first spent time at Latouche, or if this was a business born of his later life. Sealey apparently died within the 1920 decade.

The Latouche Gold Nugget Coin (token)

This remarkable Latouche coin may date from an early period of the Latouche mining camp after ownership of the Bonanza (Beatson) Mine was transferred to Guggenheim interests and production was boosted to commercial levels. The increased production brought in many miners and laborers into Latouche.

The style of the token is nearly identical to the William Haferkorn Everett, Washington gold nugget piece. Though the two were apparently made by different die sinkers, they were clearly designed after one another, or by the same person who may have used different manufacturers. The timing of both strongly suggest a direct link to the Alaska Yukon-Pacific Exposition (AYPE) in 1909.

Both the Haferkorn Everett, Washington and the Latouche coins were made on unique planchets made in the three dimensional shape of a gold pan. The Haferkorn gold nugget piece appears to date to the 1909 period. Haferkorn was probably promoting his cigar business at the AYPE in 1909 with his nugget tokens. No other coins or tokens with the three dimensional gold pan planchet are known today. The Valdez nugget tokens were made and used about 1908. The George Frau “The Fairbanks” (bar), Valdez gold nugget token dates to the period 1908-1911. It thus makes complete sense that the Latouche token is from the 1909 period on a comparative manufacture basis.

This piece is unusual and highly collectible because of the small nugget mounted in the center of the obverse, the near-unique three dimensional gold pan shape, and the wonderful history of the Bonanza Mine at Latouche. The nugget was intended to appear as a gold nugget, but it is in fact an original piece of the Latouche ore deposits, reflected by the unique placer gold containing silver and copper. According to Alaska pioneer minor coinage experts, there are perhaps five to ten of the Latouche nugget coins known.

Excerpts from: The Sealey, Latouche, Alaska Gold Nugget Token
By Fred N. Holabird
*A similar version of this article was published in the Quarterly bulletin of the Token and Medal Society. For a full version of this description please contact Holabird Western American Collections.

City: Latouche State: Alaska Date: c1910 ID# 37514
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