20 Dollars, Clark, Gruber & Co., United States, 1860
date: label: date made
content: 1860
name: label: mint
content: Clark, Gruber & Co.
notes: label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
place: label: place made
content: United States: Colorado, Denver City
title: label: Title
content: 20 Dollars, United States, 1860
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
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content: Coins
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content: Numismatics
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content: Coins, Currency and Medals
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content: Legendary Coins
label: Exhibition
content: Value of Money
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Zoomable Image and Details
label: Related Publication
content: Glossary of Coins and Currency Terms
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/coins/glossary.cfm
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Mint
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1985.0441.2226
label: catalog number
content: 1985.0441.2226
label: accession number
content: 1985.0441
objectType: label: Object Name
content: coin
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: gold (overall metal)
label: Physical Description
content: 0 (overall die axis)
label: Physical Description
content: 0 (overall die axis measurement)
label: Physical Description
content: struck (overall production method)
label: Measurements
content: overall: .25 mm x 34.4 mm; in x 1 11/32 in