1860 Denver City Five Dollar Die Trial - K-1, Copper

Coin Details

Auction Record

$14,400 AU55BN 08-20-2019 Stack's Bowers

Description

This copper die trial is associated with the Denver City Assay Office, established in the heart of the Pikes Peak Gold Rush that swept through what is now Colorado beginning in 1858. As thousands of prospectors flooded the region around Denver City (then part of Kansas Territory), the need for reliable coined money became acute. Clark, Gruber & Company — the most prominent private minting firm in the region — and other assayers produced gold coins to fill this monetary void. The Kagin-1 "Denver City" designation identifies this as a die trial from one of the territorial minting operations active in the Denver area during this explosive period of western expansion. Struck in copper rather than gold, this piece served as a test impression to verify die quality and design execution before committing precious metal to the coining press. The Denver City assay operations represented the westernmost extension of organized private coinage during the gold rush era and laid the groundwork for the eventual establishment of the Denver Mint as a federal facility in 1906. Die trials from these frontier minting operations are exceptionally rare survivals of a brief but historically significant chapter in American monetary history.

Rarity Notes

Extremely rare. Die trials from Pikes Peak Gold Rush assay offices are among the rarest territorial numismatic items, most known in single specimens.

Cross References

Kagin-1