The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1906-06-22

coin. You would naturally suppose
that there would be many attempts to
counterfeit this dollar for Ii is worth
from $1,000 up. There has never been
q single attempt TO counterfeit this IA
nous coin, but a number Of coins have
been turned out with the date altered
THE design of the 1894 dollar is the
same to ali practical purposes as that
Of the year preceding it and in fact a.
far beck as I79s. The silver dollars OF
179s, 1919. 1900. 1901, 1902, 1893 and
1904 are all supposed to be alike. with
the exception Of the date. and they do
look as much alike IS two peas to the
novice. Yet the die makers each year
have left trifing differences thar make
the variety and the year Of Issue rs
clear as daylight
IN almost every case when attempts
have been made to initiate the 1S04
date the dollar of 1901 has been used,
a specimen Of which Is only worth
couple of dollars. To all appearances
an 1901 dollar is precisely like the 1904
coin, with the trifing difference in
date and thus the person making the
alterations seems 10 think he has moth
ing to do but simply change the into
a T. Yet the reverse of the 1901 dollar
bears little variations that show the
year in which it was struck
plausible tales are nearly always
told by persons with such altered coins
to sell Not long ago a man came into
my place from the far west Out Of a
channels bag which lie carried around
his neck he took two coins carefully
wrapped in tissue paper.
"Tenderly he laid the coins in my
hand. He was not a coin collector, he
said. but had heard that these two
pieces were very valuable and had
bought them at a low figure.
zone of the coins was supposed to be
an 1904 dollar and the other the rare
1853 half dollar, without the arrow
points alongside of the date, which
ought 10 have been worth from SO to
500. They were certainly beauties,
both of them, and the old man told
their history, which went something
like this:
Back in the early forties a farm
seeker, with his family and all his eff
fects in a prairie schooner, came to
halt at a ferry landing on the eastern
side of river in Kansas. The man
was at the end of his financial re-
sources, and the only thing in the way
of money he had left was a large silver
dollar of 1904.
HE persuaded the ferryman to take
his outfit across In his flatbost and left
with him this dollar. which the pioneer
said was rare one, worth $40 or S12
back IN the states, and he made the
/ ferryman promise to hold the coin until
! he called for it and paid the price of
/ the ferriage
THE owner of the dollar never call
ed. After keeping the dollar for many
/ years the ferryman died, and his son
! disposed of it to the present owner.
who had picked it up for the bargain
| price of $780, The ferryman's son, who
was a good natured fellow, gave the
buyer as good measure the 1853 half
dollar, which, he said, was also a rare
] coin.
'.Now, that was very likely story
and ought to sell any coin, but not here
in the east. They were both very fine
/ specimens, and they looked good to the
eye, but they We're both limitations and
not worth any more than the metal of
| which they were made except as Curl
osities.
THE 1904 dollar was one altered
from 1901. which a glance at the re-
verse showed, although the substituted
4 would have given the thing away,
for this last figure was raised very per
ceptibly higher than the $780,
'As for the 1858 half dollar, it bore
no arrow points on either side of the
date, for the very simple reason that
they had been rubbed away The work
had been done very cleverly and thor
oughly. One would hardly suspect that
it had ever borne arrow heads, for
there was no indication left to show
this, but the industrious workman had
forgotten to rub away the rays behind
the eagle on the reverse of the coin.
There were two varieties of halt
dollars made In 1853. One. the com
mon variety had arrow points on Ell
Their side of the date, while on the re
verse rays shot out In all directions al
the back of the eagle The other va.
riety, which is the valuable one, had
neither rays nor arrows.
Attempts have been made to imi
tate the cent of 1915. No cents were
issued in that year. and yet | have
seen a dozen specimens bearing the
date
Now the latter day imitators have
taken up the task Of adding mint let
tiers to certain coins to make them re
semble rare varieties The accumula
. ton of coins bearing these mint mark:
is taking a good deal of the attention
of collectors nowadays. and the imi
tators think they have an easy field
but their time is simply wasted, fo
; their productions meet with no bette
|. success than the imitation of the earle
coins and can be singled out in mo