A horde of several hundred federal bank checks and documentsfrom the first branch Mint in Denver has been found in a private Coloradocollection. According to numismatic researcher Dr. Lawrence J. Lee, the documentcollection includes letters, stock certificates and pre-Territorial records, as well asU.S. Quartermaster and Paymaster checks issued by the Federal government forpayment of debts, salaries and expenses in the Rocky Mountain region prior to1900. The horde include hundreds of checks issued by the United States BranchMint at Denver, Colorado, the so-called "first Denver mint," which existed from1863-1905.

Most official U.S. government checks of the early Colorado period were drawn onthe First National Bank of Denver, the only Federal depository in the region.Several different main check styles were used, with many minor variations. MostTreasury checks are printed on specially watermarked U.S. Treasury Departmentpaper and have an image of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton on the right side. Theword "WAR" is printed in the lower right corner. This style of check was adopted bythe U.S. Treasury soon after the Civil War commenced and was apparentlycontinually used until at least the early 1900s.

The checks issued by the DenverMint are signed by the �Assayer in Charge' and cover the period 1865-1899.Clark, Gruber Bank & Mint and its successor, the First National Bank of Denver,dominated banking in the western United States from its inception in 1860 tomerger in the mid-1980s. The Clark, Gruber minting function was purchased by theU.S. government in 1863 and survives today as the United States Branch Mint atDenver.

The First National Bank had an extensive document archive that was broken upthirty years ago, with much of the collection going to the Colorado State HistoricalSociety. Dr. Lee discovered and has control over a substantial and importantportion of the bank and mint archives that remains in private hands.In the course of researching the first Denver Mint, Lee examined images ofdocuments from the National Archives in Washington, D.C. and viewed thecontents of the Mint archives located at the Denver Federal Center on multipleoccasions. Leads from that research led Lee to the family with the privatecollection.

Depository (depositary) checks were drawn on government funds at certain,specially designated, nationally charted commercial banks. The checks drawn onthe FNB-Denver in the last quarter of the 1800s were from the Denver AssayersOffice of the U.S. Branch Mint in Denver. Other checks in the collection were usedto pay units on military posts, Indian agencies and other government entities.The cache of U.S. Mint checks represents a huge research project that will takesome time to adequately explore and catalog, said Lee. "These checks contain aperfect record of the activities of the U.S. Mint during a time when virtually nothingis known of its day-to-day operations."

He noted that in some cases, the Mint is cutting a check to a miner who hasbrought in raw gold to be sold to the Mint. The check lists not only the name of theminer and the amount of gold and silver contained in his �poke,' but also lists thename of the claim from where the gold was mined. Checks are also made to Mintemployees, providing a list of names, positions and pay scales. "This is invaluableinformation," said Lee. "It looks to me like someone's PhD. dissertation waiting tobe written."

For more information about the Denver Mint checks, email Dr. Lawrence J. Lee atlee@athena.csdco.com or write him at P.O. Box 6194, Lincoln, NE 68506.