RCC/A Tale of Two Leshers

A Tale of Two Leshers

While federal coinage and paper currency constitute the mainstream of U.S. numismatics, many a fascinating story can be found when one leaves the standard guidebooks behind. One such tale is the story of Joseph Lesher and his “referendum dollars.”

Joseph Lesher was born in Ohio in 1838. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War and tried his hand as a merchant for a few years after the “boys in blue” restored order to the nation. Wanting more, he left Ohio for Colorado and its rich silver mines. Though a successful miner, he returned to Ohio after a few years and opened a livery business. Silver’s siren song was too much for him, however, and Lesher once again left Ohio for Colorado.

Lesher again achieved success in his pursuit of silver, working mines in Georgetown, Leadville and Silver San Juan. He also became owner of a mine in Central (City). Later, when Colorado gold eclipsed silver as the miner’s ore of choice, Lesher followed it to Cripple Creek and then to Victor and once again prospered. He became a wealthy man in the years that followed, but gained the majority of his wealth through successful real estate investments rather than gold or silver mining.

Lesher was always a strong supporter of silver, however, and believed that the 1900 silver price of just $0.60 per ounce was inappropriately low. In an effort to push the use of silver in coinage, and drive the metal’s per ounce price to the $1.29 that he believed was proper, Lesher had struck a group tokens he called “referendum dollars.” These octagonal-shaped pieces each contained one ounce of silver and had a stated value of $1.25. The “referendum” designation alluded to the fact that Lesher could not and would not force anyone to accept the pieces at their stated value. He would leave it up to those who encountered them to decide, a sort of “people’s referendum.” Lesher did back the full stated value of the pieces with his own money, however.

Several local merchants were intrigued by his novel coinage and agreed to use and accept them in their places of business. A. B. Bumstead was the first of these local merchants, and he had Lesher produce a group of them with his name on them. Others merchants followed suit and today collectors often pursue Lesher dollars by name. Figures 1 and 2 show the obverse and reverse, respectively, of an original Bumstead piece.

Approximately 1,900 pieces were produced in total, and it is believed that roughly 400 of them have survived. The pieces saw limited circulated in Victor and other Colorado cities such as Cripple Creek, Boulder and Denver. The Victor house where Joseph Lesher lived while he promoted his referendum dollars was purchased by Q. David Bowers in 1980. Bowers donated the building to the ANA, and the Association, after finding the old house structurally sound, began the task of restoration. To raise the approximately $30,000 needed to complete the project, the ANA had struck 1,000 silver reproductions of the original Lesher Referendum dollars and sold them for $30.00 each. I came across one recently on eBay and was fortunate enough to add it to my collection.

Figure 3 - ANA Reverse Figure 2 - Original Reverse

The reverse of the ANA restoration souvenir piece is a reproduction of the second reverse variety of the original Bumstead type; the Bumstead pieces were the second type produced. The reverse of the ANA piece is shown in Figure 3, compare it against the original example shown in Figure 2.

Figure 4 - ANA Obverse Figure 1 - Original Obverse

The differences on the obverse of the ANA piece are far more noticeable. The most obvious difference is the inclusion of a not-to-scale depiction of the Lesher House over the original mountainous mining scene. The inscriptions of the restoration souvenir also vary significantly. They attest to the medal’s connection with the Lesher House restoration rather than to its use as a potential medium of exchange. Compare the obverse of the restoration souvenir shown in Figure 4 with the original obverse shown in Figure 1. As with the original pieces, the ANA medals are individually numbered. The piece I recently purchased is number 579. I found it interesting that the modern piece does not include any reference to the ANA.

One day I plan to add one of the original Lesher pieces to my collection, but until then I’ll make do with my modern commemorative souvenir.

Until next month, Happy Collecting!

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