"Established many decades before the first coins were struck there"? This, part one deals with the establishment of "Denver the little community of humble beginnings"...

Greetings Collectors,

First of all I want to thank each and every one of you that have sent me e-mails within the last 24 hours. I never expected the responce that I received. I was not going to continue this type of posting without getting the "go ahead" from those of you who read these journals. I will say, I spend a great deal of time reading & researching the facts that I share but I do it on account of it being such a "high paying" endeavor. The details about the robbery were taken from 10 different stories, including Federal Government archives. Lately I have been thinking about how "jealous" I am to those that actually get paid for writing about this hobby that we all love so much. But I am being paid as well, because on account of all of these journals that I have written this past year, they have enabled me to get very fast with my typing and also the vast amount of knowledge I have gained about the hobby in general, not to mention the photo skills I have aquired, thanks to all of you that have helped. I am getting "paid" very handsomely, "thank you very much". Oh and on a side note, thank you "Sarah coins" for your "ten votes" but I could only use one. Also if there are any of you that do not like my "ramblings", I did not hear from the first one. But again, thanks to all of you.

I found the story of the Denver Mint full of intrigue. There was great need, back room shady dealing, government procrastination, favoritism, and point scoring paybacks just to name a few. It's funny how things change but still remain the same.

The Denver mint was established after the discovery of Colorodo gold in 1858.Even though the mint was authorized by Washington in 1862, it would be many decades before the striking of any coinage. Times sure have changed as the Denver mint today strikes more coins than any other US mint. I had always thought the Philidelphia mint struck more coins but the documents I read said the Denver mint is the "Worlds" top coining facility".

On July 9th 1858, William G. Russell struck gold near the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River, located at the foot of the Colorodo Rocky Mountains, in what was then the western edge of the Kansas Territory. Others had found traces of Colorodo gold in previous years but it was Russell's discovery of "high grade" ore that triggered yet another great American gold rush. Prior to Russell's arrival, only one family had taken up permanent residence in the area, but they were soon to have many neighbors.

Only a couple of months had passed when two small "rival" towns were established, one on each side of Cherry Creek. The encampment to the south was christened "Auraria" (which is the latin word for gold). Russell named this small town after his hometown in Georgia. On the other side of Cherry Creek, the northside town was named Denver City, in honor of James W. Denver, the then governor of the Kansas Territory.

Denver City was at first named St. Charles, but the towns founder, Charlie Nichols, lost his claim when he temporarily abandoned it. (Can any of you see cheering on the "St. Charles Broncos?) William Larimer of Leavenworth, Kansas resurveyed the area and hoped to score political points by renaming the town after the governor.

By the close of 1858, some five months after gold was discovered, the populations of these two towns had reached 300, then swelling to 4500 by 1860. These two original settlements in the area feared competition from the community of "Golden" a few miles to the west, so the leaders of Auraria and Denver City agreed to consolodate their towns into one, to be called Denver City. The union was celebrated by a nighttime parade on April 6th 1860, marching across the newly constructed Larimer Street Bridge that joined the the former adversaries. In November 1861 the city of Denver was incorporated, about eight months after the Colorodo Territory was formed.

Not wanting to put "the cart before the horse" you needed a "Denver" before you could have a "Denver Mint". So I wanted to bring you up to that point and the next "installment" as in "Part Two" will deal with the problems associated with all that "GOLD". One small tidbit of info I will throw in now is the medium of exchange early on was gold dust mainly. In the saloons and dance halls that sprang up almost overnight, this on account of the "boys" needing to have a place to get a drink, and of course getting rich all day made one want the company of a fair (and sometimes not so fair) lady in which to releave the tensions of a hard days work. Don't you just love the "smell" of capitalism. Just like California before them and Alaska afterward, there were many people that made alot of money in areas aside from the "gold fields". I got a little "sidetracked" as I often do, but getting back to the gold dust being an early "medium of exchange", saloon owners would hire the "biggest boys" around, not only to serve as "bouncers" but when you bought a drink, and we are talking, pre coin and pre paper currency, you would open your little sack of gold dust and the bartender/bouncer would reach in and take a "pinch" between his thumb and index finger and that was the price of a drink. It goes without saying that you would want a fellow selling drinks, that had really "big" everthing, even more so in the "finger dept".

This hobby of coin collecting and all the misc. issues that surround it are simply fascinating to me. I am learning tons of stuff that I had no clue of. The second part of this series will be on the need for a better "medium of exchange", something a little more efficient than "Big Johns" thumb & finger. This problem was taken care of by establishing private mints/coiners. As some of you know, coins minted of this time & type are highly sought after and are very costly to obtain.

I leave you with a very poor specimen of the last silver coin (90%) minted at the Denver Mint. The reverse of a 1934-D Peace Dollar. Thanks for reading and Happy Collecting!

WKF