Q. David Bowers
Business Strikes:
Enabling legislation: Act of April 2, 1792 Designer of obverse: Robert Scot (after Stuart), model by John Eckstein
Designer of reverse: Robert Scot (from the Great Seal)
Weight and composition: 416 grains; .8924 silver, balance copper
Melting value (silver bullion value) in year minted: $1.03-$1.04.
Dies prepared: Unknown
Business strike mintage for calendar year 1803, calendar year' 66,044 (may include some struck from dies dated earlier; figures do not include pieces reserved for the Assay Commission; these are given in parentheses); Delivery figures by day: February 3: 7,394 (+1); February 28: 6,153 (+1); March 15: 8,130 (+2); March 31: 16,000(+2); April 5: 2,779 (+2); May 26: 12,100 (+2); June 30: 1,288 (+2); December 12: 6,380(+2); December 31: 5,840 (+ 1).
Estimated business strike mintage of 1803-dated dollars (author's estimate'): 60,000 (rounded). (Also see business strike mintage for calendar year 1804, which consisted of 19,570 coins dated prior to 1804. If the figures 66,044 and 19,570 are added, a mintage of 85,634 is obtained for 1803, a figure given in the Guide Book and some other texts.)
Estimated quantity melted: Unknown
Approximate population MS-65 or better: 0 (URS- 0)
Approximate population M.S-64: 0 (URS-0)
Approximate population MS-63: 2 to 3 (URS-2)
Approximate population MS-60 to 62: 10 to 20 (URS-5)
Approximate population AU-50 to 58: 45 to 85 (URS-7)
Approximate population VF-20 to EF-45: 1,300 to 2,300 (URS-12)
Approximate population C-4 to F-15: 1,000 to 1,600 (URS-12)
Approximate population for all grades combined: 2,350 to 4,000 (URS-13)
CONDITION CENSUS: 63-63-60 (multiples)
AVERAGE AUCTION APPEARANCE (all varieties combined): VF:24
Characteristics. of striking: Depends upon the variety If weakly struck, this is often observed at the center of the obverse and among the stars above the eagle on the reverse.
Known hoards of Mint State coins: None
Proofs:
Proof novodels were made decades later (see Chapters 5 and 6)
Commentary
Some 1803 silver dollars are believed to have been struck in 1804.
The Year 1803 in History
Ohio became the 17th state in the Union on February 19, 1803, and the first new state which abolished slavery from the beginning of statehood; earlier, Vermont, which joined the Union in 1791, had abolished slavery under its constitution of July 1777. The Louisiana Purchase was completed at a cost of about $15 million, and added about 828,000 square miles of land to the United States. New York and Massachusetts threatened to secede from the United States in protest of Jefferson's purchase, which was made secretly.
Fort Dearborn, later known as Chicago, was established on the western shore of the lower part of Lake Michigan. Buffalo, New York was founded where the Niagara River meets Lake Erie. In May 1803, official U.S. architect Benjamin Latrobe addressed the American Philosophical Society on the subject of steam power, but was not enthusiastic about its prospects. In the meantime, great advances in steam power had been made elsewhere, particularly in England by Boulton & Watt. South Carolina resumed importing slaves to solve a labor shortage brought about by increased need for cotton pickers; Eli Whitney'S cotton gin, invented in 1792, made it possible to vastly expand the crop.
In April 1803, John James Audubon arrived from France and began banding the feet of phoebes to study their habits; later, Audubon's studies would become famous, and an elephant-folio-size collection of his bird paintings would be published. William Dunlap adapted a French play to create The Voice of Nature, the first popular melodrama to be produced on the American stage.
The British Passenger Act of 1803 mandated that each passenger on a transatlantic vessel have a minimum of 43 square feet of space, a law which dramatically slowed emigration from the British Isles to the United States. George Rapp emigrated to America from Germany in 1803; in 1805 he and his followers established the cooperative community of Harmony, Pennsylvania; in 1814-1815 they moved to Indiana and established another Harmony; in 1825 that community was sold to British industrialist and social reformer Robert Owen, after which the Rappites founded Economy, Pennsylvania.