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Auction: 316 - The Collector's Series
Lot: 535

1861 $5 Clark Gruber & Company, Denver. "PIKES PEAK" on Liberty´s coronet. PCGS AU 50. Sharply struck near the outer portions, typically weak central devices. In the early days of the California gold rush, gold dust and gold nuggets were the only real medium of exchange available. This proved to be cumbersome way of doing business. In the eastern states gold dust and nuggets could be minted into much more convenient to use gold coins. For Californians, who had no U.S. Mint, the process of shipping gold dust and nuggets east to be converted into coins could take up to three months. Private mints soon stepped in to fill this void, and the same thing happened in the Territory of Jefferson (renamed Colorado after 1861). In 1860, Austin Clark, Milton Clark, and Emanuel Gruber obtained minting equipment in Philadelphia and New York and had it shipped to Denver City where they set up an "Assay and Coinage Office." The coins they produced were well received, as they contained 1% more gold than standard U.S. Mint products. As in San Francisco, where the U.S. Mint eventually replaced the private mints, the same thing happened in Denver.

Sold for
$11,000