Q. David Bowers
Still, that is not all. Silver dollars have been a popular investment vehicle for thousands, perhaps even millions, of American citizens, and to aid them in their decisions a host of printed matter has been created over the years. Investment newsletters, dealer price lists and bulletins, The Coin Dealer Newsletter and related periodicals put out by the same issuer, coin population reports of the Professional Coin Grading Service and the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation of America, bulletins on counterfeits issued by the International Numismatic Service, the American Numismatic Association Authentication Bureau, the Professional Numismatists Guild, etc., and more, each contribute valuable information.
Outside of numismatics there is much to read about silver dollars. Niles' Register, published in Baltimore from 1814 to 1847, was an early-day equivalent of The Wall StreetJournal and provided financial and other news to its readers on a weekly basis. By reading my set of these (originally owned by the Bank of the United States, later by the U.S. Treasury, and, still later, by the Federal Reserve, before it was deaccessioned), economics of the early nineteenth century came alive. Contemporary newspapers, government data, the Congressional Record, biographies of elected officials (Thomas Hart Benton, Charles Sumner, Daniel Webster, John Sherman, Richard P. Bland, et al.), Treasury reports, books and pamphlets on "the silver question," and economics studies, contributed still more.
An interesting thing about nineteenth century accounts of economics and money, a number of which were published in England (and treat as part of their texts the economy of America), is that relatively few writers had a true understanding of the changing relative values of gold, silver, and paper notes in American commerce. All sorts of conflicting data, theories, and versions of history are encountered. The same goes for texts about the U.S. Congress and its activities during the nineteenth century. In my opinion, far and away the best single text ever written on coinage in relation to the American economy is Neil Carothers' Fractional Money, published in 1930. If I were asked to name the 10 most valuable single books for the numismatic researcher, Carothers' work would be on the list. Interestingly, it was not written as a numismatic book at all, nor was it ever circulated widely in the collecting fraternity. Rather, it was a book on American economics and fiscal history as related to copper, nickel, and silver coins.
Heretofore in numismatic publications, little has been said about prevailing economic conditions. One can read standard texts on just about every American series of interest to collectors, and find details about market prices, rarity, and die varieties, but virtually nothing about the milieu in which the coins were struck and used. To be sure, Dr. William H. Sheldon in his Early American Cents addressed the problems facing the Mint, and John M. Willem devoted nearly all of his superb book, The United States Trade Dollar, to economics, but other exceptions are few and far between. Of course, there is the possibility, counter to my own preferences, that the average reader wants little of economics or economic history.
In the course of research for the present work, I was impressed by the close connection silver dollars had with the American way of life. While from the 1870s through the early twentieth century, silver dollars and "the silver question" were popular subjects of articles, books, and cartoons, beyond that, coins were an important aspect of commerce, banking, bullion transactions, and export trade since the founding of our republic. They were and are an inseparable part of American history. Because of this, I have interpolated under the Additional Information heading some data, as "The Year XXX In History," pertaining to non-numismatic aspects of American life and progress, with the thought and sentiment that such will help you, as it did me, appreciate the arena in which silver dollars and trade dollars were minted and used. Of course, the casual reader can skip over such information easily and concentrate solely upon the numismatic details, of which there are probably more than enough to satisfy even the most ardent lover of coin trivia!
Those who like to read about concealed treasure will enjoy the hitherto unpublished details of the vast cache of valuable Morgan dollars secreted in the Cash Room at the Treasury Department in Washington-as exposed in interviews with Harry X Boosel, Harry J. Forman, Jonah Shapiro, and others.
Silver dollars form one of the most interesting chapters in American coinage history. The vast panoply of designs, varieties, rarities, mysteries, controversies, hoards, and other features make this one of the most fascinating of all denominations.
The 1794 dollar-how many were minted? Why are the stars arranged differently on the right side of the obverse?
The 1795 dollar-why did the Mint insert silver plugs in some?
The 1797 dollar-when were most dollars bearing this date made?
The1801, 1802, and 1803 Proof novodel dollars-were they made in 1801, 1802, and 1803, or were they made in the 1830s, or could certain of them been made as late as the 1870s?