2010 Free Lakota Bank Copper Round

MintUnknown Mint

IssuerFree Lakota Bank (Pine Ridge, SD)

DistributorFree Lakota Bank (Pine Ridge, SD)

CollectionAmerican Open Currency Standard - AOCS

Frontal bust of Crazy Horse with a single upright feather and beaded shirt, set against a halo of radiating rays. "LAKOTA" arcs across the top; the date "2010" is struck at the left of the field above the shoulder.

Standing bison, head lowered, on a ground line, with "CURRENCY OF THE FREE AND INDEPENDENT NATION" above and "WWW.FREELAKOTABANK.COM" below. Beneath a rule, the denomination "TWO" over "ONE AV OUNCE .999 FINE COPPER," with "AOCS APPROVED · ©2010" at the bottom.

2010 Free Lakota Bank Copper Round Overview

The 2010 Free Lakota Bank Copper Round is the one-ounce copper issue of the Free Lakota Bank of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, approved under the American Open Currency Standard alongside the bank’s 2010 silver. Where the silver was denominated “FIFTY,” the copper carries “TWO,” a unit of voluntary exchange on the AOCS scale and not a dollar value or a legal-tender claim. The struck “AOCS APPROVED · ©2010” legend ties the round to the AOCS program and to its year directly from the coin.

The bank’s currency program grew out of the Lakota Nation’s declaration of December 2007, in which a delegation withdrew from the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie and announced the nation’s sovereign status. That treaty had set aside the Great Sioux Reservation and the Black Hills for the Lakota, and the government took the Black Hills back within a decade. The declaration of 2007 is the Lakota delegation’s own act, and the United States government does not recognize it. The bank’s money was an extension of the same position: a currency issued by the Lakota, for use among those who chose to accept it. From 2008 through 2013 the program issued a dated Crazy Horse round every year in silver, with copper documented in several of those years, which makes the Crazy Horse design the backbone of the Free Lakota Bank Collection.

The obverse carries that portrait: a frontal bust of Crazy Horse, the Oglala Lakota war leader, with a single upright feather, long hair over the shoulders, and a studded shirt, set against a radiating halo that evokes a feathered headdress. “LAKOTA” arches across the top, the feather breaking through the “K,” and the date “2010” sits at left above the shoulder. Crazy Horse is among the best-known Lakota figures of the Plains wars, a leader at the Little Bighorn in 1876 who was killed at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, in September 1877. No authenticated photograph of him is known, so every portrait of him is an interpretation. The face on this round follows Kenneth Ferguson’s painting Thunder on the Plains (Crazy Horse) closely, and the engraving keeps the painting’s direct, frontal gaze.

The reverse is the bank’s standing bison, head lowered, on a short ground line, with “CURRENCY OF THE FREE AND INDEPENDENT NATION” around the upper rim and the bank’s web address beneath. A ruled panel holds the large italic “TWO,” followed by “ONE AV OUNCE .999 FINE COPPER.” “AV” marks avoirdupois weight, the standard for copper bullion, where the silver issues are struck to the troy ounce. The AOCS legend closes the design at the base. The bison is the animal at the center of Lakota life on the Plains, so the reverse and the portrait together carry the program’s message: a people, a leader, and the animal they lived by, on a piece of metal meant to be spent.

The 2010 copper is one of the better-documented years for the bank’s copper. A 2009 copper exists but may be a test strike whose release status is unresolved, and dated copper is otherwise confirmed for 2013. In 2010 the copper was struck from two distinct obverse dies, one dated and one undated, covered below.

Copper had a practical role in the program that silver did not. On the AOCS scale a one-ounce copper round at “TWO” was a small unit, cheap enough for everyday trades and for handing out, while the silver “FIFTY” was the larger denomination. A program whose stated aim was a working local currency needed both. Undated copper Crazy Horse rounds in bulk lots dominate the secondary market, while the dated silver is more often sold one at a time.

2010 Free Lakota Bank Copper Round Attribution

Issuer is the Free Lakota Bank, identified on the coin by its name and web address in the reverse legend. Distributor is recorded as the Free Lakota Bank as well, as the program that operated the currency; AOCS did not sell rounds from its own website in 2010, so AOCS is not recorded as distributor.

The struck “AOCS APPROVED” legend places the round in the AOCS program. AOCS Mint (Frisco, TX) was the trade name of the American Open Currency Standard, which approved the round and did not strike it. No mark on the round names a physical production facility, so the manufacturer is recorded as Unknown. No mint mark appears on either face, and “RJG” is the copyright line, so the Mint Mark field is blank.

Designer is recorded as Unknown for this issue. The obverse follows Kenneth Ferguson’s painting closely, and period dealer listings credit him on other years of the Crazy Horse run, but no signature appears on this example and no 2010-specific source names him, so the credit is not carried over without its own support.

2010 Free Lakota Bank Copper Round Alternate Obverse

The 2010 copper was struck from two obverse dies: this one, with “2010” at left of the portrait, and a companion with no date on the obverse. Both share the same design and reverse legend, but they were not struck from a single reverse die either; the lettering in the “AOCS APPROVED · ©2010” line differs in size between the two, so the pair represents two distinct die sets rather than one obverse simply re-engraved. Both varieties are documented from physical examples. The undated-obverse piece is catalogued separately as its own entry (link to be added on publication). Numista N#98642 also records both obverses under a single type.

2010 Free Lakota Bank Copper Round Notes

• The portrait side is the obverse; the side carrying the bison, denomination, metal statement and AOCS Approved line is the reverse.
• Year is established by the struck “©2010” on the reverse; on this variety the obverse date corroborates it.
• “AV OUNCE” (avoirdupois) is correct for copper bullion and is not an error.
• Dated/undated obverse pair documented for 2010; see Alternate Obverse.
• Numista lists 39 mm / 3.3 mm / 28.5 g; diameter and thickness in the ACF table await measurement of the documented example.
• A 2010 one-ounce gold Crazy Horse medallion is a separate AOCS gold issue with a different reverse and is not part of this entry.
• Mintage is not documented.

2010 Free Lakota Bank Copper Round References

• Documented example examined (this entry), dated obverse
• Numista, “½ Oz Copper / 1 Oz Copper (Lakota Tribe),” N#98642
• Numista, Lakota tribes catalogue
• Kenneth Ferguson Fine Art, Thunder on the Plains (Crazy Horse) (kennethfergusonfineart.com), source artwork for the obverse portrait
• Archived Free Lakota Bank website materials
• Archived American Open Currency Standard (AOCS) materials
• Free Lakota Bank (Pine Ridge, SD), The Texas Stacker
• AOCS Mint (Frisco, TX), The Texas Stacker
• American Open Currency Standard – AOCS, The Texas Stacker
• Texas Stacker Archives

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