The San Francisco call., 1904-02-07
SILVER DOLLAR OF 1904
BRINGS LARGE PRICE
Coin Goes at
$4,000 to Portland. Or, to Join
Six ComDauiOuS

Six Companions
A United States dollar. now in ;ts
ninetyninth year, yesterday began the
long trip from Denver to Portland. Or.
after having lain in Denver collection
or coins for more than eighteen years.
Though the dollar is about the size of
those coined during the present year.
and contains about the same number
of grains of silver, it brought in the
neighborhood of about 50 50 per grain
of pure silver in its combination. and
all this because it has been in the one.
form for nearly one hundred years.
The dollar is one Of the coinage Of
1904, of which there are only seven
known to be in existence. It was
bought by the late j. v Dexter at the
Chapman sale Of coins in 1885 At thut
time the coin had been but lately ss-
cured from a collection in Berlin. being
the only one of the dollars that -
known to have been in a foreign col
lection. Mr.. Dexter paid $1,000 for the
dollar, having to bid against several
other collectors, the price being al that
time the largest that had ever been
paid for one Of the coinage named.
Since then one of the other coins had
been sold for 1920, a record that held
good until yesterday. when H @.
Brown Of Portland Or, paid $4,000 for
the coin to r. G.. Parvin. who sue
ceeded to the ownership of the Dexter
collection. Mr. Parvin did not willingly
part with the coin at that price. for he
has held it as the key piece of his nu-
mismatic collection.
About a year ago the Republican
printed the story of the Parvin 1904
dollar, and it was copied extensively
throughout the country As a result
Mr.. Parvin has been receiving letters
ever since concerning his collection of
rare coins from all parts of the coun-
try. A Chicago man tried to buy the
dollar, offering up to $500, and failed.
Then a man in st. Louis tried to Sc
cure it for a collection to be exhibited
at the Worlds Fair. During these ne
gotiations Mr.. Parvin thought that he
had discovered the limit of bidding,
and that no man would go over $500
in trying to get the coin. So when he
was asked by Mr.. Brown to put a price
upon it he replied that he was not will
ing to dispose of it, but had set his
price at $4,000. Mr.. Brown did not wait
IOT IHc SlOW VI the united
States mail, but telegraphed to send on
the old dollar. Since then kilograms
have been coming at the rate of one a
day. Yesterday, while Mr.. Parvin was
reluctantly placing the dollar in a
candy box and labelling it, there came
another telegram to hurry up the dol
lar anyway, and to send it C. o. D. if
there was no other way. So the dollar
started west.
The scarcity Of dollars of the 1904
mintage is explained by an accident at
sea. The larger part of the silver dol
lars of that year were struck off to nav
United States soldiers and sailors doing
duty in Tripoli, North Africa. and were
shipped to that place. The vessel that
carried them away from this country
was never heard from again, so the en-
tire cargo is supposed to rest some
where upon the floor of the Atlantic
Ocean. Just seven copies of the dollars
of that year are in existence, two lying
in the Mint at Philadelphia ard the
others being private collections. In
1858 some copies of the coin of 1904 were
struck off, being known as ''restrikes,'
but all but two of them were called in,
the records show, and destroyed. One
copy of the ''restrike" is in the Mint at
Philadelphia and the other is owned in
England. No counterfeit Of the 1894
dollar was ever known.-Denver Re-
publican