Oyster Schooner “Louisa Morrison”

Yesterday, I found one of those historical puzzle pieces that I’m forever looking for. It was in realizing its shape that finally caused it to surface. If I were a jigsaw puzzle aficionado like some of my friends, I might have solved the mystery long ago. But, I have to confess that though I think about shape in many general ways – the shape of things to come, the shape our old gazebo is in, getting my office ship-shape – I seldom think of the shape of things well known to me.

Take coins, for instance. The only consideration I give their shape is in terms of size. In my mind, some coins are larger than others, but they are all round. I’m sure that the numismatists among us would scoff at my naiveté, although I have to say that I did consult a serious coin collector friend years ago about this very historical quest; no amount of research on his part uncovered the puzzle piece.

Louis Wachsmuth and Plate of Native Oysters

It was my mother who long ago prompted my curiosity on this particular subject. When telling the story of Oysterville’s heyday in the 1850s, she always said, “A plate of oysters in San Francisco cost a Mexican slug which was worth two and one-half twenty-dollar gold pieces.” And in a little booklet called “Oysterville’s Beginnings” she wrote exactly the same information except that she used the term “groat” instead of “slug.” (Perhaps she thought that the modern reader would confuse slug-the-coin with slug-the-gastropod.)

Try as I might, I’ve never found information about such a coin – slug or groat. Until yesterday. I was reading an article by A.B. Roberts written in 1914 about his stay on Shoalwater Bay in 1853. He reminisced about being paid for his labors in constructing a mill at the mouth of Salmon Creek – One Sunday morning Mr. Watkins wanted to change small gold for a $50 “slug octagon.” I said those pieces were only worth $48. Mr. Watkins said “You don’t like our money.” I said “I don’t like those slugs…”

$50 1851 Slug

When I Googled “Octagonal slug worth $50 in 1853”… voilà! On an auction site I found it – complete with photos and description! The $50 ingots or “slugs” or “Californians” did pass as money; for most of 1851-53 they were the principal accepted currency in California… Five different ‘lots’ were listed, each containing one coin (if I’m reading the information correctly.) All lots sold at auction and ‘realized’ from $11,500 to $36,800.

My mom would go on to say that, to the best of her knowledge, no one had ever found any gold here in Oysterville – not even those cheeky people with metal detectors who we chase out of the cemetery now and then. Nor have I ever heard of an oysterman who uncovered any gold on the bay. Nor of anyone finding a treasure trove while digging in their garden. Never mind that Charlie Nelson used to tell about the men pitching gold pieces outside the saloons here in town when he was a boy…

Anyway, I’ve never been on the quest for an actual gold piece. Just the knowledge that there was such a coin – a slug worth two and one-half twenty dollar gold pieces – is satisfactory in the extreme. Although…