established in 1862 but used only as an "Assay" Office for the 1st 43 years...

Greetings Collectors,

As I begin my 81st journal entry of 2009, I quickly scanned over the topics and subjects of past journals, and could recall only one somewhat controversial subject. I thought that pretty good for me. Anyway I just wanted to say that I am so very thankful for all of you here at the CS and I read every one of your journals, many times more than once. I have learned much about coins and photography, so very much that it would be difficult for me to list it all. Again, a heartfelt "THANKS" to all of you.

Like I mentioned before, due to the massive amounts of gold being found on both sides of the Cherry Creek area, Washington saw the need for an additional mint. This first step, authorizing one, was accomplished in 1862. But the main reason that it was not acted on then, was that the country was in a war that was trying the split the country in half. And in 1862 the war was not going well for Washington, if fact from the start right up to this present time, many in the north thought the war was lost and were pleading for Lincoln to sue for peace. "New mints" would be put on the "backburner".

Just as Denver was coming into its own, larger amounts of gold were found in the mountains just west of the city. At the height of the boom in late 1859, more than 100,000 prospectors were toiling in the northern Colorodo gold districs alone. Mining towns were springing up overnight, such as Central City, Idaho Springs and Blackhawk. What little currency and coin that came into the area was quickly spent and then hoarded, thus leaving "gold dust" as the medium of exchange. Of course gold dust was, at best, an imprecise procedure, ripe with fraudulent temptations.

In 1860 three resourceful businessmen, brothers Austin and Milton Clark & Emanuel Gruber saw the need for coinage and set out to take advantage of the opprotunity and the burgeoning population. They "pooled" their money and at a cost of $5,000 they built a two story brick building set apon a stone basement foundation.

Clark, Gruber & Company quickly became a purchaser of raw gold in the Auraria/Denver City locale. In the beginning they were paying $12-$16 in "gold coins" for one ounce of gold dust or nuggets. They would then ship the gold back east where the US mint was paying out $20 and better in coin for each oz. of gold. After just a short while it became clear that freight and insurance charges were eating up most, if not all of their profits. It was at this point that they decided to go into the "coining business" themselves.

After wading through some legal research, the three men determined that a private mint was indeed legal. On July 5th 1860 the coin presses, dies, and other equipment were ready to go. Later that month the first "Clark, Gruber & Company gold coins were released to a "coin starved" public.

By October 1860 the private mint had produced a total of $120,000 in gold coins. Of these were the denominations of $2.50, $5.00, $10.00 and $20.00. This small private mint had sizeable mintages for 1861 as well. For those of you that collect "Bank Notes", you know that "Clark Gruber & Company" also printed paper "Demand Notes" to ciculate alongside the gold coinage. Faith was something that had to be earned in the way of gold coins, but even much more so when it came to paper currency. C.G. & Co. earned and maintained that trust in so much as the "purity" and the weight were right on the "money", and the paper had worthy backing.

Many things happened in the year or so after the mint had gone into operation and as with the rest of the country, the "hoarding" of gold and silver coin was a "hedge" against uncertainy. As the war raged the Clark & Gruber mint ceased the coining operations but continued printing paper currency, fully redeamable at any time for gold coin that had been minted by them earlier. So as the country was in turmoil as far as trust in Federal and other paper currency, the economic climate of the "Denver City" area was stable in that respect. Alot to be said for this little private mint.

Many back and forth political things went on for the next year or so. Territories were formed, Governors appointed, and very shortly a militia was formed to prevent the capture of the gold fields by the south. Many voices were crying for a new "Federal Mint" of which Clark and Gruber were in favor of. All of the back room dealings, officials even had samples of the private mint's coins sent back east for testing in the way of weight and purity. All of the tests & disscussions came back "positive" with all involved saying "lets make a "mint" happen in Denver City. The "bill" passed both houses of congress and on April 26th 1862 Lincoln, with his signature, made it official. The legislation did not include the purchase of Clark & Grubers two story building and all the equipment which is what the government wanted so through the back and forth dealing, they finally came to an agrement with the government to purchase the private mint, lock, stock & barrel for $25,000. It was not until 1863 when the deal was finally signed, giving the treasury the ability to start the coining process. But instead the facility underwent major renovations and was enlarged so that on September 24th 1863, the new United States Mint & Assay Office at Denver was ready for business.

The new Denver mint took up residence inside the old Clark & Gruber building and was equipped with both coining and assay equipment, BUT... no coins were ever struck there.

Many things happened over the next 6-8 years, and with one major indian uprising after another going on, it was deemed too dangerous to start any coining. The routes back and forth to "back east" were very dangerous from not only the likes of indians on the "warpath", but "highway robbers" as well. Then there was a huge silver find that happened in the 1870's near Leadville Co. and it was found that the old "heavy black sand" that gold miners had so cursed, was loaded with silver. In fact there was so much silver discovered, it far surpassed the amount of gold found in the whole area, dollar for dollar. Still no "coining".

The Denver mint was stuck in "assay mode" for years and as "law and order" slowly gained a foothold, and the city of Denver continued to grow in stature, size and reputation, there was still no "thumbs up" signal from Washington. As the years of inactivity stretched into decades, nearly all the persons responsible for starting the idea for the Denver mint, had passed away and it was up to the next generation to get the job done.

On Febuary 20th 1895 Congress voted to authorize the purchase of land and the construction of the new Denver mint. On April 22nd 1896 the government purchased the property on Colfax Avenue, for $60,000 from the estate of former governor John Evans. Construction did not begin until July 1899 and was to cost $500,000. The Mint was finally ready for occupancy in 1904 at a cost of $800,000. All during this time, the old Clark & Gruber building continued to function as an assay office. After all the mint personnel moved to the new location the old Clark & Gruber building was sold, then suffered the humiliation of housing a vegetable market followed by a mercifull demolition in 1909.

The mints new machinery was put on display at the St. Louis Exposition 1904 before shipment to Denver and insta