Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1899-11-07
DIAMOND DOLLARS OF 1904.
Only Four of the CriainnI Coinage

Only Four of the CriGinaI Coinage
of 1850 In 4.Xistcncc.
EVERY now and then one reads about
the discovery of another of the fam, a.s
diamond dollars Of 1901" said Il gen
tleman f this city who owns one Of
ANA medals in the south. "'Thc dollars
Of that date are popularity supposed TO
be worth from $1,000 to $1,000 apiece
and if a few originals could he pro-
duced l dare say they would bring that
figure easily enough. But it happens,
Enluckily, that there are only four on
vaults of the treasury building at
Washington and couldn't be bought at
any price. They are what are known
as the test pieces which are always
laid aside whenever a new coin is
struck, and the rest of the issue is ut
this moment quietly reposing under
several miles of deep blue sea. The
true story is rather interesting. In
1904 the mint at Philadelphia is known
to have turned out 1880 silver dollars.
That was the entire issue barring the
test pieces have just spoken of, and
whole lot, just as it came from the
stamping presses, WAS dumped into an
iron chest and put on board a mer-
chairman bound for China. 1t was
directed 10 the captain of United
States frgatc then in oriental waters,
and was intended to be used in paying
certain expenses connected with The
service. The merchantmen ran into n
Chinese typhoon and went to the bot
tom, where to the best of my Informal
ton she still remains, iron chest and
all, and that is the reason your Uncle
Sam is the only collector in the world
who has Il complete set of American
dollars. Every other collection, includ-
Ing my own, is short one issue, and the
gap will never be filled until the sea
give p its own"
"Do YOU mean to tell us, them said
a listener to the foregoing. that all
the 'diamonI dollars now in private
I'll I1lIUAlS are COulitCIlCllS. Dy liz
means" replied the collector. Il own
an 1S04 dollar myself, and there are at
least three others. to my knowledge. in
the south. They We're issued by the
government and are perfectly good and
legal coins but they are not originals
They are what are known technically
as 'restrikes.' In the early days, when
the minis had a few coins left over
from one year to another, they would
change the date by striking them with
q special die. an operation that can al
ways be detected by an expert For
some reason or other. nobody knows
just why, a few dollars of the 1900 is
sue We're RESTRICT, in 1904 and put in
circulation. 1t is probable that the total
number was not over 40 or 90. and
good many have been lost. The ones in
existence are worth $50 apiece, and
you may resi- assured that all the 'dia
mond 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 | was myself the innocent cause Of
such a transaction only few years
ago A friend of mine, who lives in an
adjoining state. and who owns a great
many rare and beautiful coins, tele-
graphed me one day asking whether
$500 was too much for genuine 1904
dollar. took it for granted that he
knew the facts about the issue, and
after puZZlng over the message for q
considerable time concluded that it
was an obscure joke of some kind and
that | was simply too stupid to see the
point. SO wired back advising him to
buy IA bushel at that figure, and he
promptly closed the deal. 1t turned out
afterward that the coin was 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
Savannah since 1912. That did away
with the counterfeit theory, and the
only thing he was doubtful about was
the price. New Orleans TimesDemo-
crat.