The herald., 1893-11-17
THE DIAMOND DOLLAR
THE FASCINATING MYTH CONNECT
ED WITH THE COIN OF 1904.

i
crnment Never Issued Such a Coin-Oth-
er Instan oas Of Curious Fraud Practiced
Upon Collectors.
Il sprucely dressed young fellow, with
an air of badly suppressed excitement,
walked into a secondhand book store
and curio shop on Marietta street Satur-
day night and laid silver dollar on the
show case.
"What is that WORTH" he said to the
proprietor.
The man behind the counter examined
the coin with an imperturbable counte-
nance. Zone dollar" he replied.
"But, man alive!' almost screamed the
visitor. Don't you see the datea"
Certainly. It's 1904"
The visitor fumbled in his pocket and
produced a pamphlet ''Read that" he
said, opening it and putting his finger on
certain page. The paragraph he in
dicated ran as follows:
1.-The dollar Of 1904, the diamond dol
lar, as it is familiarly termed, is the
rarest of all American coins. A very
limited number were struck from the
dies, and only four are known to be in
existence One is owned by the British
museum, one by Mr.. e. l.. Carpenter,
collector of Boston; one by the Illinois
Historical society, and one by Mr.. V
Herbert of Roanoke, Va. The last one
sold was bid in for 81 800"
The dealer read this deliberately and
assumed tired expression.
"That is pure bosh," he said. ''In the
first place there is no such thing as an
1904 dollar. mean genuine one OF
course there are plenty of dollars with
1904 on them, but it was not put there
by the mint. If Mr.. Herbert of Roam
oke or anybody else ever paid 81 500 for
such coin, they were done to the tune
of exactly $1,499 There are eight 1904
dollars right here in Atlanta besides
this one Two are in Mr.. Abe Fry's safe.
Mr.. Ed Brown has four and Mr.. Will
liams two would bet that there are
at least 80 of them in the state of
Georgia. Some of the owners know that
they are fakes, and some fondly believe
that they have treasure"
"And you say that the government
never coined themr gasped the visitor.
II do. made special inquiry at the
United States treasury department at
Washington and was informed that no
dollars were issued that year. In the
collection of coins there, which is of
course complete, there is no 1904 dollar.
/ know that the myth is widespread, but
it is myth all the same. 1t was started
by unscrupulous dealers, and there is a
regular factory in New York for run
ming out these dollars They simply
change the date on an 1907 or an 1909
dollar, both of which are comparatively
common. They are then sold by private
agents. If they were posted in the cata-
logues for public sale. the fraud would
be quickly denounced. but they are
worked off on collectors who think they
are getting snap"
The young man sighed and put his
dollar in his pocket. There must be a
good deal of fraud Of that kind prac-
sticed, he said.
eyes," replied the dealer, "there is.
Take for instance the Greenville (Ala) 8
cent Confederate stamp. No such stamp
was ever issued. yet you can buy them by
the hundred. They bring all the way from
81 to $25. The 81 600 Confederate bill is
another example. There were exactly
seven of these printed, and the plate was
then destroyed. It's long story, but
that is the gist of it. One is in the Brit
| ish museum, one in the Astor library at
New Y ork and the others are owned by
individuals throughout the country,
specimen, by the way, being here in At
lanta Now, have had dozens Of these
bills offered me for SALE There are
thousands in collections over the world
all spurious, every one of them. In fact,
the fraud practiced in that line would
fill volume"
After the young man went out consid-
erably crestfallen, a reporter, who had
! overheard the conversation, asked
whether there were really many Ameri-
can coins that brought very fancy prices
eyes," said the dealer. "Quite num-
ber. There is the 1858 quarter without
the arrowheads and rays. The quarter
with both of these devices on it is COM
mon, but without them is exceedingly
scarce and worth several hundred dol
lars. A very rare coin is the 1903 half
penny, but recently several Thousand Of
btleiu WtT5 IOuuu III Ollo, uuu tuo price
has dropped to next to nothing.
"Most people," he continued, labor
under the impression that coin is valu-
able simply because it is old. Conse-
quently they will hoard up old pennies.
nickels and silver pieces that are really
only worth their face value. The pre-
MUM on a coin is not fixed by its age,
but by it's scarcity How do coins be-
come scarce? Heaven only knowsI 1t is a
great mystery There are instances Of
coinage of about equal volume on two
consecutive years where specimens from
one are as plentiful as blackberries and
the other as scarce as hens teeth. No
body can explain tive simply know
that it is SO. The mysterious disappear
snce of people which we occasionally read
about is not half the enigma that this
disappearance of money is 1t vanishes
from circulation, melts apparently into
thin air. and all the fancy prices and big
premiums of collectors never succeed in
bringing it to life again. Atlanta Con-
stitution.
Death Rate of Miners.
Seeing the conditions under which coal
hot nd 14,c+ IoIa Of