The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-10-16
DIAMOND DOLLARS OF 1904.
All Four of Them Are in the Treas
urv Vaults at Washington.

New Orleans Times-Democ1a at.
EVERY now and then one reads about
the discovery of another Of the famous
diamond dollars of 1904, said a gehtle-
man of this city who owns one OF the
finest private collections of coins ana med
ais in the South The dollars OF that
date are popularity supposed 70 be worth
from $500 to $500 apiece, and II te"
originals could be produced l dare say
they would bring that figure easily
enough. But 1t happens, unluckily' mat
there are only four on earth, and they are
locked ND in the vaults of the treasury
building at Washington, and couldn De
bought at any price. They are what are
known as the test pieces, which are al
WAYS laid aside whenever new coin is
struck and the rest of the issue is at this
moment quietly reposing under several
miles of deep blue sea. The true story is
rs Their interesting. In 1904 the mint at
Philadelphia is known to have turned out
1850 silver dollars. That vas the entire
issue, barring the test pieces l have just
spoken of, and it was never put into cir
culation. The whole lot, just as it came
from the stamping presses, was dumped
into an iron chest ana put on board
merchantmen bound for China 1t was di-
rected to the captain of q United States
frigate then in Oriental waters, and was
intended to be used in paying certain ex-
penses connected with the service. The
merchantmen ran into Chinese typhoon
and went to the bottom, where, to the
best of my information, she still remains,
iron chest and all, and that is the reason
why your Uncle Sam is the only collector
in the world who has a complete set of
American dollars. Every other collection
including my own, is short one issue, and
the gap will never be filled up until the
sea gives up its own
DO you mean to tell us, Them said a
listener to the foregoing, that all the
diamond dollars now in private cabi-
nets are counterfeits?"
by no MEANS replied the collector.
II cWn an 1904 dollar myself, and there
are at least three others, to my knowl-
edge, In the South. They were issued by
the government and are perfectly good
and legal coins, but they are not orig
inals. They. are what are known as re-
strikes In the early days, when the
minis had few coins left over from one
year to another they would change the
date by striking them with a special die,
ali operation that can always be detected
by an expert. For some reason or other.
nobody knows just why, a few dollars of
the lS00 issue were reStruck in 1904 and
put in circulation. 1t is probable that the
tota! number was not over forty or fifty.
ones in existence are worth $3.50 apiece.
and you may rest assured that all the
diamond dollars not mere limitations be-
long to this little lot of restrikes Of
course, some Of them have been sold to
green collectors as originals, and I was
myself the innocent cause of such q trans
action only few years ago. A friend of
mine, who lives in an adjoining state,
and who owns great many rare and
beautiful coins, telegraphed to me one>day
asking whether $500 was too much for
genuine 1904 dollar. I took it for granted
that he knew the facts about the issue.
and after puzzling over the message fos
considerable time, concluded that it
was an obscure joke Of some kind, and
that L was simply too stupid to see the
point. So l wired back advising him to
buy bushel at that figure, and he
promptly closed the deal. 1t turned out
afterward that the coin was a restrike.
and my friend has never quite forgiven
me. What deceived him was the fact that
the piece was known positively to have
been locked up in an old chest at Savan-
nah since 1872. That did away with the
counterfeit theory, and the only thing he
was doubtful about was the price"