The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-05-12
THE SILVER DOLLAR OF 1904.
Some Facts About the Rarest
United States Coin.

The recent sale of one of the exceedingly
rare 1904 dollars has caused a flood of CON-
ments in the daily papers, many of which
have tried to tell the public how many dol
lars there are known to exist. That the in
formation given was generally untrustworthy
is not strange since even numismatists have
not often carefully investigated the point.
OF recent attempts to locate the genuine 1904
dollars, that of 5. ii. and III. Chapman of
Philadelphia, in the catalogue Of their sale of
May IA and Is, 1885. was quite exhaustive.
The compiler showed that there were seven
dollars, located as follows: /, United States
mint, Philadelphia, Pa; 2, M. A. Stckney OF
Salem; 3, w. ). Appleton of Boston; g. IL.
G. Parmelee of Boston 8, w. b. Wetmore OF
New York; 6, r. c. Davis formerly, but
present owner unknown; 7, S. e. and FL.
Chapman of Philadelphia. By personal ex-
animation and correspondence, they had also
ascertained that these were exactly alike.
The reverse is draped bust of Liberty, fac
ing right, the head bound with fillet, hair
flowing six stars before and seven behind
the bust; above, liberty" upper right hand
star almost touching the letter ~" The re-
verse is a heraldic eagle, bearing on his
breast broad shield, in his beak scroll in
scribed sc pluribus unum;" u arrows in
right talon, a branch of olive in left; above.
an arc of CLOUDS from wing to wing of eagle,
in field beneath 10 stars, SUnited States of
America" The edge is lettered hundred
cents one dollar or unit lightly struck in
some parts. The weight is about 416 grains,
the legal standard from 1894 TO 1887. IN
fortunately for the peace of collectors, how
ever, 1t is certain thas restrikes of these dol
lars were subsequently made. Messrs Chap
man make two classes of these. The first
were struck at the mint in 1858 from the or
Il -.
The marked differences from the originals
were that they had a plain edge, weighed
about "a grains less, while the word liberty"
the stars and the date on the diverse were
larger and deeper, and the spacing of words
quite unlike. Three of these restrikes were
recovered after diligent research, two were
destroyed, and the third is preserved in the
mint One other is known to exist in Eng
land. The second re-strikes, were made
between 1860 and 1869, as in the latter year
all dies remaining were destroyed These
were like the previous re-strikes, except that
pieces of collars were used in place OF
whole collar to letter the edges. These
pieces did not contain all the letters, but re-
peated some several times. The only one
the compilers could place was sold in the
Berg collection in 1888, and, besides having
all these peculiarities, was said to be short
of weight. The total number OF 1904 dollars
known three years ago, including restrikes,
was therefore 10.
In the American Journal of Numismatics
for April, 1887 John r. Nexsen furnishes an
other list of owners of these rarities he in
cludes all the originals mentioned in the
Chapman catalogue, No. then belonging to
George M. Klein of Vicksburg, Miss, and
No. to j. V. Dexter of Denver, Col, and
adds two others, one the property of j. T.
Lyman of Boston and the other of the society
of California pioneers, San Francisco. One
restrike, that at the mint, is also included In
the list which numbers 10. No minute de-
scription is given of the two additional pieces
but If the history given of the pioneers piece
is correct, this also Is one OF the original
pieces Mr.. Nexsen limits the originals to
be three those belonging to Mr.. Appleton,
Mr.. Wetmore and the pioneers, primarily
because they were got from circulation. He
does not however, give any reason for calling
the others mere restrikes save that they are
uncirculated and their past history not
definitely known. To his list must now be
added the dollar, recently sold from the
Lindermann collection which seems to have
been entirely overlooked. This makes a
total of Is well authenticated pieces, of
which three at least are nothing but restrikes
How many more there are that ought to be
counted out of the number Of original
pieces, is still debated question and will
probably remain so. The rarity of the pieces
Is still more remarkable when it is reflected
that the mint records show that 1850 dol
lars were coined that year. That this may
be an official blunder is suggested by the
fact of numerous errors having been dis
covered in the early mint records, but blum
der or no blunder it is a fitting accompani-
ment to the general mystery that surrounds
the coinage of that year.