Dillsburg Copper, Lead and Iron Company stock certificate circa 1855 (Pennsylvania)

Impressive older PA mining stock. Older printing type. Fantastic center vignette of an underground mining scene with miners. Additional lower corner vignettes left and right. Unissued and not cancelled. Dated 18__ but circa 1855 from corporate records. Measures approximately 11.5 x 8 inches.

Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, was once home to significant iron ore mining operations, particularly a large magnetite deposit about a mile east of the borough and a limonite ore field west of town in Dogwood Hollow. Mining in the Dillsburg area, active for roughly 60 years beginning in 1855, extracted approximately 1.5 million tons of iron ore from over 30 pits and underground mines. Today, the former mining sites are on private property and are known for old dump piles and pits, with the area's history documented in local geology and mineralogy records.  

Copper was mined in the general Dillsburg, PA area in the 19th century, primarily through the Longnecker Mine and the McCormick Mine, though these were smaller-scale operations within the context of larger iron mining in the Dillsburg region. The copper deposits were not particularly rich, and the mining efforts were largely unsuccessful compared to iron.