Kagin states that the June and July issues of News in Denver City provided a running account of the development of Clark, Gruber & Co.'s new mint in the midst of that city. The editors announced on July 11, 1860 that the enterprise was ready to commence minting, stating that they had "seen specimens of their coin in copper, and learn that they have begun coining gold". Kagin states that it was later revealed that coins had first been struck a day earlier, on July 10, but whatever the exact date, it is enticing to learn of "specimens seen in copper", since that plays a major role as to the nature of the coin being offered in this lot.On July 20, Clark, Gruber & Co. invited witnesses to observe the actual striking of their first official gold coins from "Pike's Peak gold", about 100 $10 gold pieces, and an editorial in The Rocky Mountain News described the proceedings on July 25, 1860. Thus, it is reasonable to deduce that the copper strikes ("trial strikes", so to speak) were manufactured within the fifteen days prior to the "actual striking" of the gold coinage. It is unclear how many trial strikes took place, but a production run of Kagin-3 in circulating gold is given an R.5 ("rare") scarcity estimate, and the die-trial pieces are estimated at R.7, making them extremely rare, much rarer than the circulating gold coins. Incidentally, die trials for other denominations were struck on dies that were not intended for actual production, but in the case of the $10 pieces, these are the exact same dies that did actually strike circulating coins.
NGC attributes the coin as a gilt 1860 Kagin-3 copper $10 piece, meaning this is assuredly one of the copper trial strikes, though your cataloger is unaware of when the coin would have been plated. Quite unexpectedly, evidence of light die clashing can be seen within the stripes of the shield, but there is no evidence of this anywhere else, nor are any die cracks apparent. NGC has supplied a grade of "proof" PF-62, presumably because the coin is gilt (copper die-trials are assigned a circulation-strike MS-XX grade), but it goes without saying that "grade" is of no actual relevance to a coin such as this, one that was obviously never intended to circulate or serve function as a specimen. It was merely meant to demonstrate mechanical proficiency of coining equipment. The grade is presumably intended to reflect the presence of some scattered ticks, but nobody is really going to pay attention to such trivial asides for a coin of such historic importance. An intriguing blush of copper-rose color accents the central areas of each side. Kagin, Donald H., PHD. Private Gold Coins and Patterns of the United States. Arco Publishing, Inc. 1981.