Evening journal., 1914-01-31
1904 DOLLAR
OWSITS VALUE
TO BEDOUINS
Coins Of Rare Issue We're
Sent to TripOli to Pay
U. S. BluelaCketS
NATIVES TREASURED
THEM AS JEWELS

MINNEAPOLIS. Mimi, Jan. 31.-l
More myths and fewer facts have
been printed and told OF the 1904
American dollar than of any other
coin ever cast save the widows mite
and the Roman silver piece ordered
by Caesar for Cleopatra just after
the famous general returned after his
conquest of the invading hosts of
Egypt, and whose circulation was
limited to 100 pieces, according to
numismatist who makes his home in
Minneapolis.
"To commence WITH" said this stu
dent Of the worlds coinage, after
reading of the 1904 dollar said to have
been found in New Haven, Conn.
recently and valued at $500, "there is
an American dollar worth many times
more than the 1904 dollar-that of
1868. None today are known, and
among coin collectors generally it is
believed that none exists. Yet IT is
an official fact that 1868 dies were
made and six proofs as they are
called. impressed between the dies
and reeding hubs of the United States
Mint in Philadelphia. But Congress
failed to provide for a dollar coinage
that year, and none was officially
struck. What became of the six
proofs nobody knows, but it is gener-
ally supposed they we're thrown back
into the crucibles of the Mint, melted
and poured again in the smaller coin
age of that year. Just try some time
and see if you can pick up a silver
half dollar of 1868. Many we're made,
but they are rare today.
"But of the 1904 dollar, worth to-
day whatever the finder chooses to
ask for 1t, and with many purchas-
ers in the market, strange as it may
seem, over $4,000 we're turned out
The reason of their scarcity is that
the entire output was sent over to
the paymaster of the United States
feet of three men-of-war then lying
off Tripoli, on the African coast. The
sailors who got them as pay carried
them ashore and il is thought all
we're traded to the natives for such
supplies as we're obtainable, much
after the fashion of men-o'-warsmen
even to the present day.
"Coins of that size were new to
the people of that faraway and saw
age country. for nothing ever reach
ed Il except a few English silver
pieces, and England coined nothing
so large as our dollar. As a result
of this trading the dollars we're scat
tered among the tribesmen from
Tunis to Egypt, and found their way
ultimately into the hands of the lit
tie bands Of wandering Bedouins
making their homes in the GASES oil
the Sahara.
"As a circulating medium to thes'
rovers OF the desert, the dollar trade,
by the United States Jackie had littl'
or no value, but as the basis for th'
manufacture of silver jewelry. tn
dark-slSinned sons of Kano and Wada
bartered for them wherever found 70
they knew no silver coin of that size.
Found on a Desert Chief.
"One OF the few now existing of tn
genuine 1904 dollars. remembering tina
many spurious exist, was found hang
ing to an armlet OF desert chief o
the Ghadames tribe, which makesz il
home in the oasis that bears its name
1t had descended from father TO san
and now is one of the prizes Of the fla
nous collection of the Banks brothers
the coin collectors OF Boston. 1t cos
the brothers over $1,000. and was pur
chased by them 4Oodd years ago.
Coin collectors generally believe al
but probably a dozen or so were trades
to the African natives along the eas
coast and made by them into ornament
for personal adornment, much after tn
fashion of the NayaiOs and Pueblos o
our own day. The few not thus de
stroyed are thought to have beei
brought home in the ditty bags of SOM
homeward-bound memo '-warsmen an
preserved as pocket pieces, gradually T.
be discovered and sold at fabulous price
10 collectors.
1T is not so strange" went on tn
coin enthusiast, that his dollal
should have been found in New Ha
ven, Conn. for. If genuine, this is tn
second 1904 dollar the little City o
the Elms has unearthed. The mos
perfect 1904 dollar known is in tn
possession of a coin and stamp com
pany of Nv York and occupies
place of honor next to the widow
mite once owned by Henry War
Beecher and given by him to DR.. Fun
of the publishing house Of Funk an
Wagnalls.
"This 1904 dollar was found in a
old pewter rim, in the home of an oil
lady who lived at Savih Rock, a sui
arb of New Haven. She only recalle
that her father, a whaling captaii
sailing from the Thimbles to So
chem's Head, just east Of the collee
city, the former being popularity b'
lieved to have been the island hon
of Captain Kidd, had given it to he
telling her that his uncle, bo'sun
mate, who had shipped under Comm'
dore Perry in foreign seas, ha
brought it home to him. The col
brought the white-haired little Lao
something over $4,000. One by on
here and there. 1904 dollars have bee
picked up. until probably doze
genuine ones are known to exist"