Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/40

30 never been submitted to the government of the United States, for license, it was unconstitutional in form. In every other particular it was eminently regular. The little mint was not possessed of the necessary appliances to render the coins uniform in quality or color, but they were scrupulously accurate in the amount of gold which they contained. Never had the mints of the national government created a more honest coin. When they were called in later by the mint at San Francisco they were found to contain eight per cent more gold than the standard coins of the United States. This money received the name of "Beaver' from the stamp placed upon one side of the coin. Altogether about $30,000 of this money was coined in denominations of five and ten-dollar coins.

The Oregon community throughout its history has favored metallic money. The notes which the Provisional government sometimes gave in return for its obligations and agreed to receive in payment of obligations to itself is the nearest that Oregon ever came to a paper currency. No state institutions were ever organized to issue paper money because such privilege has been denied by the wisdom of the framers- of the constitution and Oregon has been spared the evils of a currency which figured in the history of so many of our commonwealths. Even during the time of the civil war, when paper money was issued and every appeal to patriotism would urge to its use, Oregon remained essentially upon a metallic basis, by the passage of a special contract law, enacted in imitation of a similar policy in California. Financial heresies have not taken root in the industrial life of Oregon and the social evolution has profited thereby.