n 1858, when gold was discovered in Colorado, hundreds of merchants, miners and settlers moved in for their stake. A year later, the city of Denver was founded; and in 1863, the U.S. government established a mint facility there. Today, the United States Mint at Denver manufactures all denominations of circulating coins, coin dies, the Denver "D" portion of the annual uncirculated coin sets and commemorative coins authorized by the U. S. Congress. It also stores gold and silver bullion.
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In 1904, the government decided to convert the Assay Office into a working mint, and built a much grander facility, an Italian Renaissance style building modeled after a Florentine palace. In 1906, its first year in operation, the new Mint produced 167,371,035 gold and silver coins valued at $27 million. Today, the Denver Mint's output can exceed 50 million coins a day.