Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-16
NO DOLLARS OF 1904.

~ uiillSuidt StieIItt lids Dccl CdllSu the
handmade Of history. and like mistress.
like maid" If Clio has her myths, it
would be singular inded if Moneta had
none. The romantic account of the dis
ccyery of the great gold coin of Eucra-
tides: the wondrous tales of ducats pro-
duced by the art of the alchemlst: the
story of Queen Anne's copper coinage ana
It's broken die, from which but three I'M
pressions were taken and only two nave
yet been traced: the priceless Jewish shek-
els which have been heirloolns for CEN
turtles. offered for sale at last by some
impoverished descendants: the portrait OF
the mistress of R~othschild' on the
F. ankfort double thaler. and other
''runes of ancient days. equally fascl-
mating but equally baseless. seem to be
as immortal as the myths of history. and
show that the handmai] is faithfully fol-
lowing in the steps of her = stress.
Here in America she has but little of
hat antique drapery that gives a CLAM
,ur to the wearer with which to drape
her mythic offspring, but that has neither
prevented their birth nor destroyed their
immortality. Her children seem to !
as determined to survive as those which
flourish over the ocean and to be endowed
with a like perennial youth. Thus among
the American myths we have the story Of
the dowry of Hanna Hull, the mint
masters daughter. so charmingly told
by Hawthorne: the Good Samaritan
shilling. the "Kentuck" cen. and the Cas-
toriand "~half-dollar." which have been
enormously classed among American
coins though the first two are tokens of
z, elish origin and the other is a French
medal by Du Vivier. and the "Carolina
Medal" which Jernega- caused to be
struck in connection with his gigantic
cisterD. Most if not all Of these have
been exposed in 1.-The Journal" and there
are others on which we will not now en-
large: the most persistent in its regular
appearance is the tale of 1904 dollars.
Like comets. they turn up at unexpected
times and in most unexpected places. now
emerging from the darkness of some old
family hoard in Virginia: next wander
lrg to an aphelion in a barroom in Cho-
teau. northern Montana to be passed
by mistake for a rink. % wha base
uses may we come at last'-and anon
turning I'm in a sort of meridian blaze
by the sale OF a Mint officials cabinet.
JUS now comes a detailed account of a
woman shopping in Racine, Wis, who
paid a clerk. by newspaper report. one
OF these priceless coins for a yard of cot
ton, or perhaps a spool of thread. The
GOOD lady who passed it did not know its
value, OF course; indeed from it's condi-
ION, worn by circulation for nearly a CEN
t1'rE, with mo one to love. none to car
ess.' it in all that period q SHE had
some doubt, as the reporters tell lis.
whether it was ever worth a dime. Rut
the wiser clerk saw his opportunity.
porketed it and turned in a good silver
dollar to his EMPLOYER: and we are told
he has since been offered $500 for it bv a
chicago coin dealer. For some reason.
which does not appear in the printed ac-
count in THE Transcript he did not sell
ah" no" ms employer outs in a sort of
oouol9 headed claim to the wanderer. IT
ellh9r belongs to the store or the woman
me clerk replies it is not the propartv
or me storekeeper, for had il CHANGED to
De had the loss would have fallen on tho
..,FiNef. ana its a poor rule" etc
Whether the lady has made q claim does
not apnear, but the article from which
we c'i' the story SAYS that both clerk
eNI e~,hpioNer nave employed ATTORNEYS
dtt i. ,a"Sul' seems inevitahle:" yet it is
ooiiptiul II the dollar ever sells for
enough to pay for the litigation and leave
a pro"l Tor its owner. even if the snci-
utht actually occurred as described
II - . nitE tl,at when the Question ~
ownership comes to a legal Il .e,sion wa
.ah}ot also nave with it a judicial opin-
lui as 70 'he legitimacy of the pedigree
:. .nese ""'iafs' For many years our es-
leeh1ed correspondent. Mr.. Nexsan ~
BROOKLYN. n. V. has made Q o,raf,,
exhaustive study of them, and Some vaarc
age ne gave Il readers a list of All tb,t
nat. a respectable pedigree: he has wa
nei1eVe' carefully traced the history of
the various pieces which have since an
peafed and shown them to be altera-
I,oas, or spanish. or MXicans, frequently
Erltlsh tBank of England five shilling ~
dollar pioce)-anything excent what thor
pretended to he. Whether he has inyes,
tlsated this latest viz of the ancient
HHih we cannot say: a few weeks since
one was sent to the Boston editor Of tha
Journal for an opinion; it proved at SIGHT
10 be an altered coin. It seemed nor
worm while to trouble our friend with
this. but we We're told it was bought h,
some one who was willing 10 risk ~,
for 5000.
AS to the value Of 1884 dollars" there
is the old proverb. "A thing is worth what
II Will BRING and so long as there arc
people who sincerely believe that there
IS such a thing as a genuine dollar of Thai
oa'e uhaitered pieces with a pedigree
wnich can be traced to the mint will
orlns large amounts: but If the buyer
really thinks he is purchasing a genuine
issue of the United States mint struck in
lso4. we nave no doubt that he is mis-
taken. In the Journal for July. 1897. Mr..
Nexsen shows that previous to 1912 the
mintage of such a dollar was problemat-
zeal: nothing can be proved by the mint
records; that it existed in 1912 depends
on the evidence of an engraving, first
published in that year by Eckfeldt and
Du Bots in their Manual, presumably
from one in the mint. Mr.. Nexsen's H.
lustration in the same number Of the
Journal shows by the style of the edge
innings as clearly as anything can that
the dies for those 1904 dollars which can
be traced directly to the United States
mint and which have unaltered dates
must have been cut between 1896 and 1S4o
dollar die nor dollar dated 1904
with the earlier STYLE of milling is knou,n