Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-08-29
THE DIAMOND DOLLAR
THE FASCINATING MYTH CONNECT
ED WITH THE COIN OF 1904.

1t Is Declared to BE Fake, as the Gov
eminent Never Issued Such q Coin-Otli-
Upon Collectors.
A sprucely dressed young fellow, with
an air of badly suppressed excitement,
walked into 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 date?"
Certainly. It's 1904"
The visitor fumbled in his pocket and
produced pamphlet. Read that, he
said, opening it and putting his finger on
certain page. The paragraph he in
Dictated ran as follows:
''The dollar of 1904, the diamond dol
lar as it is Familiarity 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 Eeln Il 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 OF anybody else ever paid 81 800 for
such coin, they were done to the tune
of exactly $l,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 so of them in the state Of
Georgia. Some Of the owners know that
they are fakes, and some fondly believe
that they have treasure"
ssAnd you say that the government
never coined them?' gasped the visitor.
Il do. l 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 a myth all the same. 1t was started
by INSCRIPTIONS dealers, and there is a
regular factory in New York for rum
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.
ticed," he said.
"Yes," replied the dealer, there is.
Take for instance the Greenville (Ala.)
cent Confedera te stamp. No such stamp
was ever issued, yet you can buy them by
the hundred. They bring all the way from
81 10 S25. The 81 900 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 York and the others are owned by
individuals throughout the country, a
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 a volume"
After the young man went out consid-
erably crestfallen, 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 a num-
Der. 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
them were found in Ohio, and the price
has dropped to next to nothing.
''Most people," he continued, ''labor
under the impression that coin isvalu-
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 coin is not fixed by it's age,
but by it's scarcity. How do coins be-
come scarce? Heaven only knows! 1t is
great mystery. There are instances of
coinage of about equal volume on two
consecutive years where specimens from
one are as plentiful as blackberfjes and
the other as scarce as hens teeth. No
body can explain tive simply know
that it is so. The mysterious disappear
ance 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.
"Mugwump' In Eliot's English Bible.
NJ. A.. Lindsey of this city writes as
follows concerning the subject mention
ed in the headline: sit is known to but
a limited few that John Eliot, the ia
nous preacher, linguist and Indian
apostle, was the author of the word
'mugwump.' Eliot was noted for his
pathological scholarship and linguistic
talent and as the only white man who
acquired complete mastery Of the AL
gonquin dialect, which was spoken i'll
his day by the Indians of the Massachu
sets Bay region. The word 'mugwump,
as-it occurs i'll his translation of the
Bible, has a meaning totally at variance
with our acceptation of the term, it be-
ing there used to designate great chief
or captain, such as Gideon, Joab and
Others and not as q disgruntled parti-
san, as we apply it. -
Since receiving the above have ia
ken the trouble to look the matter up
T IL