By Charles Morgan for CoinWeek ….
Austin and Milton Clark, brothers, left Leavenworth, Kansas, to establish a banking business in Denver City. There, they teamed up with Emanuel Henry Gruber to form Clark, Gruber & Company.
By the end of 1858, Clark, Gruber & Company had become major purveyors of gold dust. Seeing an opportunity, the firm sought to expand their business into private minting.
In 1860, Clark, Gruber & Company struck $20 gold coins that featured an unrealistic depiction of Pikes Peak, while their 1861 issues more closely hewed to the Federal gold issues of the period, with PIKES PEAK emblazoned on the figure’s coronet instead of the traditional LIBERTY.
Clark, Gruber & Co. struck gold coins in the four basic denominations, and in short order, local businesses treated their coins as sound money. As mining activity in Colorado increased, Congress took note, and in December 1861, it introduced a bill to establish a new branch mint in Denver. That law passed, and the government purchased the Clark, Gruber & Co. mint building and equipment to use the equipment and facility on an interim basis, just as it did a decade prior when it established the San Francisco Mint.
GreatCollections is offering a rare undated $5 Clark, Gruber & Co. Demand Remainder Note. This uniface note bears the American Bank Note Company imprint and features an action-packed central vignette of a cowboy hunting buffalo. William Gilpin, the first governor of the Colorado Territory, is also depicted at the bottom right.
These notes seldom appear at auction, and probably no more than five or six are known. Perhaps the notes were never issued, but circulation wear is apparent on all surviving examples.
At the time of publication, the highest of 23 bids is $20,500. The auction closes on June 22.
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GreatCollections has offered many rare and interesting coins and currency notes over the years. To search through GreatCollection’s archive of over 600,000 certified coins and notes the company has sold, please visit the GreatCollections Auction Archives.
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