Q. David Bowers
Enabling legislation: None
Designer of obverse: Robert Scot (after Stuart), model by John Eckstein
Designer of reverse: Robert Scot (from the Great Seal)
Statutory weight: 416 grains; .8924 silver, balance copper (statute irrelevant to this issue).
Melt-down (silver value) in year minted: Irrelevant, as mintage of 1804-dated dollars occurred over a span of decades, beginning circa 1834.
Dies prepared: Obverse: 1; Reverse 2 Business strikes dated 1804: None
Business strike mintage for calendar year 1804 (all coins had earlier dates): 19,570 (all struck from dies dated earlier; none dated 1804; figures do not include pieces reserved for the Assay Commission; these are given in parentheses); Delivery figures by day: January 27: 2,500 (+2); January 19: 8,000 (+2); February 1: 5,500 (+1); February 11: 730 (+1); March 27: 2,840 (+1). Presumably, all of these coins were dated 1803.
Mintage of Class I novodels: Possibly 8 to 10, of which 8 are known today. Mintage began in the early 1830s.
Mintage of Class II novodels: Believed to have been five, of which one is known today. At least three of the others are believed to have been melted at the Mint. Mintage circa 1858.
Mintage of Class III novodel: Possibly 6 to 10, of which 6 are known today. Mintage circa 1858; edges lettered at the Mint in the mid-1870s.
Population and Condition Census: See itemized registries of Class I, II, and III silver dollars given earlier.
Commentary
The 1804 silver dollar is the most famous United States coin rarity. 15 specimens can be traced.
Stickney on the 1804 Dollar (1867)
The following letter from Matthew Adams Stickney to dealer Edward Cogan was reprinted in the August 1867 issue of the American, Journal of Numismatics and in Henry Chapman's 1907 sale of the Stickney Collection. It furnishes an interesting commentary on the numismatic scene during the middle of the nineteenth century.
"Salem, July 2, 1867
"Edward Cogan, Esq., New York,
"Dear Sir:
"I have received from some friendly hand; perhaps yours, the June number of the American Journal of Numismatics, in which you notice a paragraph from a California paper, and say truly, that I would not have parted with the dollar of 1804 for twice what was stated I was offered for it.
"I was applied to by letter, July 4, 1866, by Mr. T.A. Andrews of Charlestown, Mass., for the dollar of 1804, which he understood I had in my possession, and wished to obtain by purchase, for a friend in California, or information where he could get another. In reply, I stated: 'I have a genuine Proof dollar of the United States coinage of 1804; I do not dispose of any coins not duplicates, at any price. It is not likely that if I parted with this dollar, I could ever obtain another, as 1 have been told by a gentleman, (W. Elliot Woodward, Esq.), largely engaged in selling coins at auction, that he thought that it might bring One thousand dollars.
"On the 18th of November, 1866, Mr. Andrews wrote me again, offering in the name of his friend '$1,000 in currency or the value of gold coin, 'saying: 'I merely make the offer as requested to do, being aware that you stated that you did not dispose of coins except duplicates! I declined the offer the 23dof the same month.
"No mention was made of this offer to anyone afterwards, and the first notice I received of the California paragraph was from Mr. Poole, a Professor in a College at Mexico-who supposed I was the gentleman meant in' the notice he had seen in California=when returning to his native place, South Danvers [Massachusetts]; and who called on me soon after. Of the genuineness of my U.S. dollar of 1804, I think there cannot be entertained a doubt, as it was handed me directly from the cabinet of the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, on the 9th of May, 1843, by one of its officers, (Mr .. W.E. Dubois who still then considered any more valuable than any other of the series, and I only desired it to help make up the Chronological Series, which perhaps was the first to attempt to make, of U.S. coins.
''Jacob G. Morris, Esq., of Philadelphia, (lost on board of the Arctic, on his retum from Europe in 1854)1 whom I visited at the same time, in a letter received from him soon after he Writes: 'I have never cared for making a collection of American coins of each year's coinage: it is only where the style has been altered, or where there is any peculiarity in the Coin, differing from those in general circulation, that I have cared for them; nor do I see the utility of it to a collector.' Dr. Roper and others were of the same opinion.
"This dollar has never been out of my house since, or even handled by those who called to see it; and I was very careful that Monsieur Vattemare," when at my house, should not by some sleight of hand exchange it.
"It is a perfect specimen; and I was not aware that there was any other original one existing, save. the one left in the Cabinet of the Mint. It was obtained with other coins, by an honorable exchange of Pine-Tree money, and rarities not in their collection, one piece of which, has since proved to be of exceeding rarity: the "Immune Columbia" in gold, 1785- which Mr. DuBois notices as a guinea restruck and bearing the date of 1783, p. 129 of his work on the Collection of coins belonging to the U.S. Mint, 1846-and which I had obtained, the day before, of Beebee & Parshell's in New York.
"As regards the authenticity of other specimens of the U.S. dollar of 1804, I have no knowledge. Those having dollars of that date (Cohen and Mickley) were not then known at the Mint as collectors, as appears by the list of which I send you a copy, then obtained, 1843, from Mr. DuBois, which remains, in his handwriting, in my possession, with the addition of names of Philip Hone of New York and Robert Gilmore of Baltimore, which were added in the handwriting of the late John Allan of New York, who was also a distinguished collector.
"Amateurs of coins:-Dr. Roper J.G. Morris, Esq.; Mr. David (nephew of Mr. Morris); Mr. W.G. Mason; C.C. Ashmead; John Reeve; Mr. Cooper, Camden; H.A. Muhlenberg, Reading; Rev. Dr. Robbins of Hartford (my uncle); Edward B. Wynn, Hamilton.
"I have been for nearly 50 years a systematic collector of coins; and for a very long period, almost without a competitor; and very many of the rare coins which now enrich other cabinets were, by great solicitation, obtained from me. My facilities for collecting coins were remarkably good, through the friendship of Beebee & Parshell's Bullion Exchange, 22 1/2 Wall St., N.Y. I received from them, quarterly, from 1843, rare coins I was in search of, at par; and under all the changes of the firm, they continued to favor me till 1854, when, in consequence of ill health, I gave up my business.
"You are at liberty to make what use you may please of my letter, if I have communicated anything that may be of interest to the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society, of which I should be glad to be a member, but age and distance prevent.
"I am, with esteem, Yours Truly, "Matthew A. Stickney,
"119 Boston St."