The name of #Oregon ‘s largest city, Portland, was decided by a literal coin toss.
In 1845, the two men who owned the land claim for the future city couldn’t agree on what to name it. Asa Lovejoy was from Boston, Massachusetts, and Francis Pettygrove was from Portland, Maine—and both wanted to name the new settlement after their respective hometowns.
They decided to settle the dispute with a best-two-out-of-three coin flip using an 1835 copper penny. Pettygrove won the toss.
If the coin had landed differently, the Pacific Northwest’s major cultural hub would be known today as “Boston, Oregon.” The exact coin they used, now known as the “Portland Penny,” is still kept on display at the Oregon Historical Society.
