Object Details
- mint
- Clark, Gruber & Co.
- Description
- A decade or so after the California Gold Rush began in the late 1840s, gold was discovered on the South Platte River, near the future city of Denver. As with the earlier strike, this one occasioned disputes over the value and purity of gold dust, as well as great difficulties in getting the precious metal all the way to Philadelphia to be coined there, and shipped back again.
- Matters would be greatly simplified if a coiner, either private or public, could set up shop near the gold fields. A good candidate existed-Clark, Gruber & Co. Up to now, the firm had acted as brokers, bankers, and assayers. But if a coinage was wanted, Austin and Milton Clark and Emmanuel Gruber were up to the challenge and had the resources to do it right.
- Milton Clark went back East to get the necessary machinery, three lots were purchased in Denver, and a two-story brick building soon went up on the property. Trial strikes of the four denominations to be coined ($2.50, $5, $10, and $20) were ready for inspection by mid-July 1860, and formal coinage began about a week after that.
- One of the firm's most famous products showed a marvelous, if unrealistic, image of Pikes Peak, beneath which Denver-and the Clark, Gruber enterprise-sat. The facility remained in operation through 1862, although all of its coins were dated 1860 and 1861. It was elbowed out of the coining business in April 1863. It turned first into a federal assay office, then 43 years later, into another branch of the United States Mint.
- Credit Line
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Mint
- 1860
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.2226
- catalog number
- 1985.0441.2226
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- Object Name
- coin
- Physical Description
- gold (overall metal)
- 0 (overall die axis)
- 0 (overall die axis measurement)
- struck (overall production method)
- Measurements
- overall: .25 mm x 34.4 mm; in x 1 11/32 in
- place made
- United States: Colorado, Denver City
- Related Publication
- Zoomable Image and Details
- Glossary of Coins and Currency Terms
- Related Web Publication
- http://americanhistory.si.edu/coins/glossary.cfm
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
- Coins
- Numismatics
- Coins, Currency and Medals
- Legendary Coins
- Exhibition
- Value of Money
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- Title
- 20 Dollars, United States, 1860
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_1102464
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ab-3627-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
