While they were worth five, maybe 10 cents back in an earlier era, today, their value is priceless in preserving an important part of Deadwood’s early cultural past – Chinatown.
The Deadwood City Commission recently approved a recommendation from Deadwood Historic Preservation Officer Kevin Kuchenbecker to hire the Maryland Department of Planning for the conservation of 186 copper alloy coins, more specifically, the currency recovered from the Chinatown excavations, at a cost not to exceed $4,400.
“As of 2012, approximately 80 percent of the copper alloy coins in the Deadwood Chinatown collection have been infected with bronze disease,” Kuchenbecker said. “Bronze disease is the decomposition copper bearing alloys caused by salts found in the ground. If left untreated, the coins will eventually disintegrate.”
As part of the project, the Maryland Department of Planning Conservation Laboratory will x-ray, remove corrosion, desalinate and seal the coins as part of the conservation treatments. Upon completion, the coins will be placed on public display in the Deadwood museums and/or visitor centers.
Deadwood City Archivist Mike Runge explained that there were a total of 212 tokens found during the Chinatown excavation, both American and Chinese tokens and currency.
“And they’re not necessarily from Deadwood,” Runge said. “For example, there was a Union Pacific token.”
The American currency dates from the 1850s to the 1920s and features just about every denomination, including 50-cent pieces, dimes, nickels and pennies.
“We’re focusing on the Chinese tokens because they’re in the worst shape,” Runge said. “We’re hoping that when they x-ray the tokens the characters will pop on these. Some of these are fairly early coins.”
Runge showed an example of a Chien Tung coin found dating from 1736-1795.
“This is the type of Chinese currency they carried around with them,” Runge said. “It was definitely brought in and shows had a Chinese culture here.”
The China Town collection contains approximately 250,000 artifacts. In 2010, the city of Deadwood and the Historic Preservation Commission became stewards of the collection.
“It’s not just about having the artifacts here, it’s also about taking care of them and this is one way of taking care of this entire assemblage of materials,” Runge said.
Funds for the conservation will come from the special needs line item in the 2014 city archives budget.
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