In 1792 a group of French investors, financed by Swiss creditors, proposed developing more than 600,000 acres. The tract later called Castorland covered about 210,000 acres in northern New York. They hoped to establish a settlement for affluent families fleeing the upheaval of the French Revolution.
The official seal of this venture depicted a beaver chewing on a tree. Castor is the French word for beaver, which gave the settlement its name. The first settlers of this venture arrived in 1793 and built two different adjoining towns on that parcel of land.
The company is associated with Castorland medals (jetons) dated 1796, made at the Paris Mint. Originals survive in silver and copper or bronze. Most gold pieces are later restrikes, usually identifiable by edge symbols. These pieces are commonly described as jetons tied to the company/directors, rather than a regular circulating coinage for the settlement.
The obverse has an allegorical depiction of Cybele, the classical goddess of fertility and the wilderness. She faces left and wears a mural crown, a symbol of civic protection. The legend around the periphery reads, FRANCO-AMERICANA COLONIA which translates to “the French American Colony”. There are the initials DUV below, standing for Duvivier, the designer. The name CASTORLAND and the date 1796 are in exergue at the bottom.
On the reverse of the medals was depicted Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain and the harvest. She is holding a cornucopia in her right hand and a drill for tapping maple trees in her left. Behind her, a maple tree is being tapped for syrup. At her feet lie a sickle and a sheaf of wheat. The surrounding legend, SALVE MAGNA PARENS FRUGUM, means “Hail great mother of the crops.” There is a beaver in the exergue at the bottom. This issue was minted as a medal for it bears no denomination and both the obverse and reverse are oriented to 12:00 o’clock. The medals exist with both plain and reeded edges.
The Paris Mint (Monnaie de Paris) has produced restrikes in all three metals over the past two centuries. Edge symbols help assign production periods.
The Tragedy of Castorland
The colony suffered during the severe winters of 1794–1795 and 1795–1796, and many domestic animals were lost, worsening already difficult conditions for the settlers. The theft was not the colony’s only setback. In June of 1796, one of the tradesmen employed by the colony stole all the company’s money, which was used to keep the colony running and to pay its debts. Families sold off animals and property to pay their individual debts, and life became harder than the settlers had anticipated.
After those disasters, the Colony suffered a slow decline. But by 1814, the Swiss bankers and creditors had seized all their remaining assets and sold them to American colonists and land speculators in order to recoup any portion of their sizeable investment.
Within a few decades, the colony dissolved, and Castorland faded from the map.
