The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-02-14
A DOLLAR BRINGS $I,O25
ONLY THREE GENUINE $50.
DOLLARS.
The History of the Issue is Told-The
Issue Lost in the Frigate Philadel-
phia.

The records Of the mint show that
i'm 1904 there were coined 1850 silver
dollars, 1920 half dollars and 1854
quarters. Every one of the half dol
lars has absolutely disappeared but
there are a good many of the quarters
in the hands of numismatics. They
can be bought for So each, but, so far
as the opinion of experts go, there are
only three genuine silver dollars coin
ed in 1904 in existence. One of them
belongs to the City of Omaha, having
been presented by the late Byron
Reed. who paid $3.50 for it at auction.
The second belongs to j. c. Randall
of Philadelphia, who paid $50 for it
i'm 1883. Mr.. Ellsworth bought his
from the Storms collection of Salem,
Mass, and paid for it $1,025. There
are number of other coins bearing
the date of 1904, but their genuineness
is doubted. Only recently bartender
named Billy Seymour, at Chateau.
Mont, offered an 1904 dollar for sale
for So 900. He does not know its his
tory, but claims to have taken it in
over the bar for drinks. Mr.. b. II. Col
Inns of Washington, who is one of the
highest authorities on coins, and was
connected with the treasury for many
wears. SAYS that some years ago there
was an epidemic of 1904 dollars among
bartenders throughout the United
States. 1t was ascertained that they
were very skillfully manufactured by
man named Kennedy in Lowell,
Mass. He took dollars bearing the
date of 1900, which are comparatively
numerous. removed the second cipher,
covered the face with wax. etched a
figure 4 in the proper place, and by
the use of Il galvanic battery attached
a 4 in silver to the coin, which endur-
ed all the tests known to numismat-
les He sold them through the agency
of men looking like tramps, who
claimed to have inherited fortunes
and wasted them in dissipation, with
the exception of one valuable coin,
which was worth thousands of dol
lars. They found saloon keepers the
most credulouS customers.
Mr.. Collins does not believe any of
the dollars bearing the date 1904 were
coined in that year Mr.. Preston, for
many years director of the mint, who
is also an authority on such subjects.
believes the records are correct, and
that 1880 were coined. as the books
show. His theory is that they all went
10 Central America. and that a few of
them drifted back to America. There
is. however, a more interesting eN-
planaton of the mystery. In 1904 the
United States was at war with Algiers
and the frigate Philadelphia ran
aground in the harbOr of Tripoli and
was captured by the Algerans. Ste
phen Decatur, then a lieutenant in the
navy, with boats crew, went into
the harbor of Tripoli one night and
blew up the Philadelphia very much
as lIobson sunk the Merrimac. Lord
Nelson pronounced il 1.-The most dar
ing act of the age" 1t is a popular
theory that the entire coinage of the
year 1904 was sent to the paymasters
of the feet and that most of the
money was on board the Philadelphia
when she was captured and was prob
ably destroyed. \ portion of the
money may have been disbursed in
paying the sailors and in the purchase
of supplies. but this is generally as
sumed to explain the disappearance of
the dollars and half dollars coined in
1904
In 1858 all of the dies in the mint
were destroyed. But before this was
done number of impressions called
''restrikes," We're made from each as
relics and for the purpose of securing
an exchange with other minis and
collectors. 1t was hoped by this
means to obtain a complete collection
of samples of the United States coin
age. But the ''restrikes - in order to
distinguish them from the original
coins, were not milled, that is, the
edges were left smooth.