Gettone della Tierra del Fuego

[apollonia]

Salve.

Esemplare CNG TRITON XXV, SESSIONS 1-4, LOT 1120, 11 - 12 Jan 2022

Starting price: 400 USD. Estimate: 500 USD

Lot 1120. ARGENTINA, Tierra del Fuego. Julius Popper. AV Gramo Token (12mm, 1.02 g, 6h). Dated 1889. Crossed pick and sledgehammer over granular circle / POPPER across field; granular semi-circle above and below. Friedenberg, Jewish p. 4-5; KM Tn5; Friedberg 2 (Tierra del Fuego). Toned. Good VF.
From the Dr. Jay M. Galst Collection. Ex Daniel M. Friedenberg Collection (Goldberg 25, 31 May 2004). lot 3164.

Julius Popper was a Romanian Jewish adventurer who set himself up as a de-facto feudal lord in the far south of Argentina. Arriving in the country in 1885, by the following year he had received permission from the government to explore and mine for gold in Tierra del Fuego. Popper would form his own private army, as well as issue coins and stamps in his own name. He was also largely responsible for the genocide of the native Selk’nam people, hiring bounty hunters and setting his own forces to exterminate them. Popper died in 1893, at the age of 35.