1860 Clark, Gruber & Co. $10. K-3. Rarity-5. AU Details--Cleaned (PCGS). Warm hues of light olive-gold wash over the sharply struck features, including the all important mountain. The surfaces are smooth and even, with only a few minor marks typical of commercial use. The texture is curiously bright and a tad glossy to help explain the PCGS qualifier, but does not detract from the overall pleasing appearance of this historic type.In the late 1850s, while the nation was still reeling from the effects of the disastrous Panic of 1857, gold was discovered in the Territory of Jefferson, attracting fortune seekers from all over. Many prospectors from the East Coast undertook the dangerous journey westward, passing through Leavenworth, Kansas where Austin and Milton Clark and merchant Emmanuel Gruber had set up a provisioning business. Reading about the gold finds and hearing the tales told by the prospective settlers, all three partners decided to establish a private banking and assay firm in what would soon be renamed Colorado. In 1860, the partners reached Denver and quickly set up the office of Clark, Gruber & Company, which was ready in July that same year to begin producing their gold coinage. The precious metal used to make Clark, Gruber & Co.s $2.50, $5, and $10 gold pieces did not meet federal purity standards, so in order to compensate the firm deliberately made their coins overweight, to the point that the coins intrinsic value exceeded stated face value by about 1%. The coins were eagerly accepted and soon Clark, Gruber & Co. became by far the largest and most important of the Colorado private coiners.While the two smaller denominations resembled their federal counterparts, the obverses of both the 1860 $10 and 1860 $20 bore a distinctive if completely fanciful representation of Pikes Peak (which in no way resembles the actual mountain), the legend PIKES PEAK GOLD, and with DENVER below the base of the mountain, and finally beneath that the value TEN D. The $10 pieces were the first coins to be produced at the new private mint, an occasion that was recorded by the <em>Rocky Mountain News</em> on July 25, 1860, who were invited to watch the first coins come off the press. The issues proved successful and by October of 1860, some $120,000 worth in all had been struck. While short lived - the subsequent 1861 $10 and 1861 $20 bear designs closely resemble regular coinage to facilitate use - the Mountain design has since become synonymous with Colorado territorial coinage of all types. This is a somewhat more affordable, yet still numismatically desirable representative of this classic issue. PCGS# 10137. NGC ID: ANK3. From the George Henry Carman Collection. From our (Stacks) T. Henry Allen Collection sale, February 1977, lot 1127.
