MORE ON THE FIRST COINS OF THE DENVER MINT

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V21 2018 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 21, Number 19, May 13, 2018, Article 13

I was intrigued by the article about the first coinage of the Denver Mint. I was under the impression that the sequence of striking was already known, and it formed the basis of one of my columns in The Numismatist, which was later reprinted in NGC News.

This month's theme is provided by a brief sidebar article that ran in the July-August 1999 issue of Rare Coin Review, the house organ of what was then Bowers and Merena Galleries. It relates the dates on which coinage commenced at the Denver Mint for each denomination from 1906-13. The editor of RCR did not know the provenance of this information, as it was simply found amidst a pile of other documents and letters, but it provides us now with some interesting trivia.

The Denver Mint was established April 26, 1862 when Congress approved the purchase of Clark, Gruber and Company of that city. This firm had coined gold pieces with its own stamp in 1860-61 and thus possessed the necessary facility and equipment. Denver, however, became a United States mint in name only, as it operated solely as a federal assay office for the next 40+ years. It was not until 1906 that the Denver Mint finally struck USA coins in a large structure built for that purpose two years earlier.

Coining actually commenced October 28, 1905 with a commemorative token marking the mint's official opening. This piece was produced in both bronze and silver and measures 35mm, about the size of a double eagle. One side is plain, and the other states simply DENVER / 1905. The edge of these tokens is reeded. Bronze examples are fairly scarce, and the silver striking is genuinely rare.

The honor of being the first actual coin struck at the Denver Mint goes to the quarter dollar, production of which commenced February 15, 1906. Some 3,280,000 pieces would be coined by year's end, making this issue one that collectors easily can acquire in any grade shy of gem Mint State. The minting of dimes began almost two weeks later on February 27. This is another common, inexpensive issue, as more than four million were produced at Denver in 1906. The first half dollar fell from the coin press on March 2, and its yearly total was similar to that of the dime. All three of these coins bear Charles Barber's classical bust of Liberty, and they would make a nice souvenir set that any collector can afford to build.

The article in the Aspen Democrat on the first coinage of the Denver Mint was very interesting. For more info on early D-mint coinage, check out pages 68-69 of the 1914 ANS Exhibition catalog (see attached). Denver collector Edward B. Morgan faithfully collected all coinage issues from the Denver Mint and recorded their dates of issue.

I suspect Morgan's dates are when the coins first became available to the public, not the day they were actually manufactured. He gives March 2, 1906 as the first coinage of half dollars from the Denver Mint, a month later than the newspaper article, which seems to describe the actual production date. Morgan's notes indicate the quarters were released first, on February 15. He also notes a commemorative copper issue was struck on October 28, 1905 to celebrate the opening.