Kagin-6 variety, considered to be Rarity-4.

A neat piece with an interesting history:

Gold was discovered in large quantities by a John Gregory in the spring of 1859 in the area that would one day be known as Colorado (prior to that, the area was known as the “Territory of Jefferson”). 

A gold rush immediately followed.  And, as was the case during the California gold rush just a few years earlier, gold dust and gold nuggets soon became the defacto ‘currency’ in circulation in the territory, as it was difficult and time consuming to ship the gold found in those rugged mountains back to the US mint in Philadelphia for coinage and eventual payment to the finder.

From this situation an opportunity sprang up.  Being of an entrepreneurial bent, three businessmen set up Clark-Gruber (Austin Clark, Milton Clark and Emmanual Gruber), a partnership that would go on to transform that newly mined gold into $2.50, $5 and $10 gold coins.   

They set up their private mint in Denver City, and struck coins for a brief two year period from 1860 until 1861.  Including this $5 denomination, very similar in design to the federal issue of the period, but with ‘Pikes Peak’ on Liberty’s coronet, and the company name as the reverse legends.

Quality control was, unfortunately, not that great, though, and most specimens of this scarce type are quite weakly struck in the centers, and/or are found on streaky, improperly alloyed planchets.

But this one is a pretty nice AU example of an issue that leaps in price in higher grades.

$15,000

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