1901 Lesher Dollar - HK-793, Sam Cohen

Coin Details

Description

The 1901 Lesher Dollar HK-793, stamped for Sam Cohen of Victor, Colorado, bears the imprint "SAM COHEN / VICTOR, COLO." Cohen was a jeweler operating in Victor during the height of the Cripple Creek mining boom. He would later become a prominent New York attorney and author, writing "Gold Rush De Luxe" in 1940 — a memoir of his experiences in the Colorado mining camps that provides valuable firsthand documentation of the era that produced Lesher's enterprise. With approximately 50 pieces stamped for Cohen's jewelry shop, this is one of the scarcer merchant varieties. Cohen's participation as a jeweler — rather than a grocer like Bumstead or Slusher — indicates that Lesher sought merchants across different business types to demonstrate the broad commercial viability of his silver currency. A jeweler's willingness to accept silver pieces as payment would have carried particular weight, given a jeweler's professional familiarity with precious metals. The Cohen variety provides an interesting intersection of numismatic and literary history. Cohen's later memoir offers context for understanding the social and economic environment of Victor, Colorado at the turn of the twentieth century — the mining town prosperity, the labor tensions, and the entrepreneurial spirit that made Lesher's unusual monetary experiment possible in the first place.

Rarity Notes

R-7. Approximately 50 stamped. Scarce — Cohen later authored "Gold Rush De Luxe" (1940), a memoir of his Colorado mining years.

Cross References

HK-793; Zerbe-7 (Z-7); PCGS #19008