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Forgotten Colorado Silver: Joseph Lesher's Defiant Coins

Forgotten Colorado Silver: Joseph Lesher's Defiant Coins

Current price: $21.99
Publication Date: July 10th, 2017
Publisher:
History Press
ISBN:
9781467135252
Pages:
128

Description

At the turn of the last century, miner Joseph Lesher attempted to raise the price of silver by privately minting octagonal Referendum souvenir medal coins with values of $1.25 or $1. They were common in Victor, Cripple Creek, Denver and other places in Colorado in the days after William Jennings Bryan fought unsuccessfully for free silver. Surviving an initial dust-up with the Secret Service, Lesher found a loophole to place them in circulation in 1900 and 1901. Today, coin collectors pay more than $1,000 for one. This is the story of Joseph Lesher and his audacious private mint, along with the merchants in the mining towns and elsewhere who supported him.