PCGS The Standart for the Rare Coin Industry

1999 First Runner-Up PCGS Essay Contest

The 1804 silver dollar has been christened "The King of Coins," and duly so, as it is one of the rarest and most prestigious American coins ever minted. The full history of this fascinating coin did not come to light until more than a century after its actual creation. The official Mint records say that 19,570 dollars were struck in 1804, but only 15 known specimens have survived since that time. Many fantastic speculations were made as to what happened to the coins, but the real reason for this low survival rate is that none of the 1804 dollars were actually struck in that year.

In that time, it was common practice to use dies from the previous years until they simply wore out, in which case a new dollar would be designed. This saved the expenses and painstaking process of creating new dies every year. As a result, it is believed that the dollars struck in 1804 actually displayed a date of 1803 or even earlier.

Then, in 1834, President Andrew Jackson and the Department of State ordered that a set of coins be sent to both the King of Siam and the Imam of Muscat. They were to contain every domestic coin being used at the time and were used as gifts to open up trade talks. Because silver dollar production had stopped after the 1803 date, there weren't any dollars bearing the 1804 date. They were needed to complete the set, so the Mint made new dies with the 1804 date. They struck only eight of these coins, four for such diplomatic presentations and four for exchange with coin collectors for additions to the Mint Cabinet Collection. No such happenings took place until nine years later.

In 1842, two Philadelphia Mint employees published their book, A Manual of Gold and Silver Coins of All Nations, Struck Within the Past Century, which showed a plate of a United States 1804 silver dollar. No one outside of the Mint had obtained solid proof of their existence until this time, although there were rumors in the numismatic circles of the day. Then, in May of 1843, Matthew A. Stickney of Boston exchanged a 1785 IMMUNE COLUMBIA in gold for an 1804 specimen and became the first outside collector to attain one. As news of this traveled to the prominent numismatists of the day, the coin came into high demand. This need led to the two subsequent restrikes, which have since come into the light.

In 1858, unknown Mint workers retrieved an old Scot punch, the original obverse die, and a slightly different reverse die that was never used in the first striking. Approximately five pieces were produced in conjunction with Theodore Eckfeldt, who had been fired earlier from the Mint for stealing. He sold four of these coins for seventy-five dollars each and was found out because the workmen had been careless. Unlike the original strike, these five had plain edges and were far too light for legal tender. The Director of the Mint, James Ross Snowden, demanded them back. He placed one of these first restrikes in the Mint Cabinet Collection and supposedly had the others melted down. Later, electrotype copies of this coin were made for sale to collectors, although they are not recognized as authentic today.

This coin had become so valuable that these practices didn't end, even after the scandal. Eckfeldt and his accomplices continued to risk themselves by striking even more dollars from the set of dies they still had. They tried everything to make this set of coins look authentic. After striking, the edges were lettered in a fairly poor imitation of the original and actual silver dollar blanks were used, although how they got them is unknown. This continued for two years, until 1860, when Snowden took the dies from them. They were kept in a sealed box until 1868, when Snowden's successor opened the box and had the dies destroyed.

As fascinating as the general story of the coins is, their individual histories span the entire world and involve many of the leaders of American numismatics from its beginnings to the present time. There are now eight examples of the Class I original dollar, six of the Class III restrike, and only one of the Class 11 restrike. This coin is now in the National Coin Collection at the Smithsonian lnstitute.

Although they are not as valuable as the elite eight, the remaining Class III coins are still some of the most famous in numismatics today. The Berg specimen was first sold from the Mint by Captain John W. Haseltine, who was involved in the sale of 4 out of the six Class III coins. After being sold out of its namesakes' collection, it stayed in the Garrett family for over 50 years. It finally came to John Hopkins University after the death of John Work Garrett. It was sold approximately ten times before becoming a part of the Sommer Collection, where it remains now. The Adams coin was first sold by Haseltine to Phineas Adams of New Hampshire. This example eventually came to the Carter family who sold it to L. R. French, Jr. After the sale of his collection, this coin went to Rarities Inc., then to the National Gold Exchange, and finally to Heritage Rare Coin Galleries. In 1989, Heritage sold it to a Midwest collection. The Davis specimen was for a long time believed to be one of the original issue, and one of its owners, Robert Coulton Davis, obtained a letter from Mint official William B. DuBois saying as much; it is now believed that DuBois lied deliberately. As a result, past owners kept this coin under wraps. Then, in 1971, Stack's sold it to James McConnell, Jr. who still owns it now. The Linderman specimen was one of the two 1804 dollars stolen from the Du Pont collection in 1967. It was recovered in 1982 and loaned to the ANA Museum, but when du Pont's Class I dollar was recovered in 1993, this coin was donated to the Smithsonian. The story behind the Driefus-Rosenthal coin, although touching, is probably incorrect. Supposedly, a former slave gave this coin to his son, who kept the coin for over 40 years and then sold it to W. Julius Driefus. It then went to Rosenthal before being owned by Farran Zerbe, who placed it in the Moneys of the World exhibit. It was then sold to the Chase Manhattan Bank as an exhibit for their Money Museum, and when it was forced to close, the bank gave the dollar to the American Numismatic Society. The last Class III restrike, the Idler specimen, has been owned by some of the most prestigious firms in numismatics, a major sports team owner, and finally, Mr. and Mrs. Aubrey Bebee, who loaned and then donated this coin to the ANA.

The Class I coins are the most sought after in the world, and their pedigrees reflect this, as most of these coins have been in the hands of many important and influential men. The exception to this is one dollar, which is now in the Smithsonian Institution's National Coin Collection with other pieces from the Mint Cabinet. A second, the Mickley specimen, started out when a teller supposedly picked the dollar out of a deposit at face value and sold it to Joseph J. Mickley, from whom it gets its name. After the sale of his collection, the coin was eventually given to the Massachusetts Historical Society, who then sold it as a part of their collection to a private Chicago collector. Stack's then bought it for $150,000 in 1974 for Reed Hawn, where it remains today. The Parmelee specimen was bought for face value by an unknown lady, sometime around 1845. She then sold it to E. Harrison Sanford, and it was purchased out of his set by Lorin G. Parmelee, one of the foremost collectors of his time. At the sale of his collection, it was purchased by Byron Reed, who in turn willed it to the Omaha City Library. After a series of attempted robberies, it was placed first in a bank vault and was then moved to the Western Heritage Museum, where it remains today. The Cohen coin went through the collections of two leading numismatists, Col. Mendes Cohen and Henry S. Adams, before being sold Lorin G. Parmelee, who had previously owned another of these coins. It was eventually sold to B. Max Mehl, the man who first publicized the 1804 dollar as the "King of Coins." He then sold it to Lammont du Pont, and it remained in his family until 1967, when it and other pieces in the du Pont collection were stolen in an armed robbery. After being recovered in 1993 in Zurich, Switzerland it was donated to the American Numismatics Association, and it now rests as a main attraction at the ANA Museum. Another dollar with an interesting story is the Dexter specimen. It was sent to a sale in Germany by the Chapman brothers, who then bought it back. The only reason for this was to give the coin a good background, which would fetch a higher price at auction. In 1885, James Dexter acquired it and stamped a small "D" in one of the clouds on the reverse to mark it as his own, a mark it still bears today. The dollar was eventually sold to B. Max Mehl and on to Harold Bareford. Then, at Auction '89, this coin sold for $990,000, a record at the time. In 1994, Superior Galleries sold it to Harlan White who in turn sold it to a private collector where it remains. The King of Siam coin has traveled the world in its history, and was owned by three kings before being given to Anna Leonowens, who was none other than Anna of Siam, the main character in The King and I. It was passed down through her family along with the rest of the set, and then sold it to David Spink, who, at the 1963 ANA Convention announced its existence and filled in the missing pieces of the dollar's history. Since then, this set has been sold for record-breaking sums up $2,900,000. Today, it is owned by Spectrum Numismatics, who bought it in 1993. The Stickney specimen is none other than the coin that Matthew Stickney got directly from the Mint in 1843. After the sale of the Stickney, Ellsworth, and Atwater collections, Louis Eliasberg kept R until his death in 1976. His family auctioned his collection in 1997 and the beautiful 1804 dollar was sold to Spectrum Numismatics. The last of the elite eight, the Watters coin, is now the finest 1804 known and was the coin originally sent to the Imam of Muscat in 1834. Its whereabouts were unknown until circa 1880, when C.A. Watters of England came forth saying he had seen the set in a pawnshop window and purchased it, but this story is most likely false. The set was dismantled and the dollar went first to Virgil Brand and then to his brothers Armin and Horace. Then, in 1945, Walter Childs' family bought the coin in the interest of trying to complete his set. His entire collection is being auctioned this August by Bowers and Merena, and due to the quality of this coin, an unprecedented price is expected for it.

Since its beginnings, the 1804 silver dollar has been hidden in mystery and confusion, and I believe that is one of the reasons it has become such a prestigious and desirable coin. Through the actions of the Mint and numismatists around the world, we have been given a beautiful and fascinating coin with a history that can make us realize how small the world really is. I first chose the coin because of the abundance of information available, but after reading and learning about it, I can agree with what Kenneth Bressett said in his piece on the dollar, "The King of Coins was originally made for a king, and has held its royal place ever since. The King is not dead. Long live the King!"

Works Cited

Bowers, Q. David. Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States. 1993 by Bowers and Merena Galleries, Inc.Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.

Bressett, Kenneth. "The 1804 Dollar." The Comprehensive U.S. Silver Dollar Encyclopedia. 1992 by Highfill Press, Inc. Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

Breen, Walter. Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins. 1988 by Doubleday. New York, New York.