Trivia - Denver Mint

You probably know the Denver Mint began producing coins in 1906. You, also, probably know, the coins the mint struck that year were the dime, quarter, half dollar, half eagle ($5.00) gold piece, eagle ($10.00) gold piece and the double-eagle ($20.00) gold piece. You, also, probably know no one-cent coins were struck by this mint until the 1911 Lincoln cent and the first dollar struck by the Denver Mint was the 1921 Morgan.

But, do you know the first commemorrative coin to bear the "D" mintmark of Denver is the 1933 Oregon Trail Memorial Half Dollar?

Do you know the Denver mint never struck any one dollar gold coins? That's because the production of one dollar gold coins ceased in 1889. Any gold one dollar coin bearing a "D" mint mark was struck at Dahlonega, Georgia which only minted gold coins.

Denver struck Quarter Eagle ($2 1/2) gold pieces for the first time in 1911 the same year it struck 1911 Lincoln Cents.
No $3.00 gold pieces were struck at Denver.
No $4.00 gold pieces (stellas) were struck at either the Denver or the Dohlonega mints.

Clinker

 

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Thanks Clinker!
As Johnny Carson used to say..."I did not know that"

 

Hey Mikjo0:

Thanks for your comments

Clinker

 

Thats wierd and wild stuff!

Interesting for sure!

Freddy

 

That is interesting for sure. I've always liked the little D on coins. Never like the S Mint mark. Always gets blurred, filled in, smashed, etc. Anyway, thanks for the info.

 

Just Carl:

Thanks for reading and commenting.

Clinker

 

Thats cool I got 2 1964-D halves and 8 1969-D halves. Cool facts:thumb:

 

Hi Clinker - I didn't know that about the 1933 Oregon Trail Memorial Half Dollar coin but yes, I was familiar with the Dahlonega, Georgia mint. My understanding is Dahlonega and Charlotte had VERY poor quality control and there was a lot of poor quality (albeit expensive) gold pieces from there.

 

Freddypm and vancoin thanks for your comments...

denver_mike thanks for reading this old post and your input...

Clinker

 

Thanks for the Denver mint trivia. As you probably know, the first nickel minted in Denver was the 1912-D. The Denver mint only had a short time in 1912 to practice striking Nickel metal before they began production on the new Indian/buffalo design in 1913.

 

Interesting Denver Mint Info. I have never collected gold and so paid no attention to the fact that Denver and Dahlonega both were "D" mintmarks.

 

Geez, Johnny (God rest him) and I have something in common. Thanks for the info Clinker....

 

Here's some trivia, did you know that the Denver mint is the only US mint that has been robbed? On December 19th, 1922 a Federal Reserve truck was picking up a cash they had stored in the Mints vaults when a car pulled up and a gunfight broke out. One Mint guard was shot and killed and the crooks got away with $200,000 in five dollar bills. Eighteen days later the car and frozen corpse of one of the robbers (Nicholas Traynor) was found in a local garage. Part of the money, $80,000 worth, was recovered in Minnesota, but no one was ever charged with the robbery.

 

Very interesting stuff. Thanks!

 

Great info!
In 1863 the US treasury department bought the business of the banking firm of Clark and Gruber Co. for only $25,000, which later became the US mint in Denver. The mint opened the doors to their new building in 1905.

 

coloradotokens:

Thanks for the positive comment and the addendum...:thumb:

Clinker

 

More:

The last commemorative coin struck in Denver: 2001-D Indian Head Buffalo silver dollar.

The only modern PROOF coin struck in Denver: 1984-D $10 gold Olympics proof.

All business-strike 40% silver Kennedy half dollars were made in Denver (including those from 1965-1967). The special-mint-set (SMS) and proof-set issues were struck in San Francisco. None were struck in Philadelphia.

The most valuable modern commemorative silver coin is from the Denver Mint: 1989-D Congress Bicentennial silver dollar with reverse rotated 180 degrees ($1,500-$2,500 currently).

The Denver Mint (supposedly) is home to 1/4th of the nation's gold reserves.

In 2006, Congress failed to authorize a commemorative coin for the 100th anniversary of the Denver Mint. Instead, they ordered 2006 San Francicso Mint coins commemorating the 100th anniversary of the great earthquake. The Denver Mint did produce 100th anniversary medals, intending to give them out to employees. But when US Mint headquarters in Washington DC got wind of the plan, they put a stop to it. Rumor has it that the medals were actually minted and they are either sitting in a vault or have been destroyed. A private mint produced and released a very limited quantity of 2006 Denver Mint 100th anniversary tokens in brass, silver, gold, and palladium:


In the 1860s the US Government bought out the private Clark Gruber mint and later turned it into the US Denver Mint. In an ironic twist, in 2001 the Denver Mint sold a surplus coin press which later became the core asset of a new private mint in Colorado.
That press was used to mint these 1-oz gold pieces which are a tribute to the Clark Gruber gold coins first issued 150 years earlier:

 

Hi dcarr:

A big T H A N K S for the additional info and the links...:bow:

Clinker

 

I show business strike coinage of 40% silver halves in San Francisco of 470,000 pieces in 1965 and 284,037 in 1966. No business strikes struck there in 1967.

 

If memory serves, that was around the time that the government was claiming that the "evil' collectors were contributing to the coin shortage of that time and all coins of that era bore no mint mark....