THE MICKLEY 1804 DOLLAR

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V16 2013 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 16, Number 30, July 21, 2013, Article 17

I see Heritage has a Dollar for sale - but there's no information provided about it. I don't know the Greensboro Collection, and can't relate it back to "The Fantastic 1804 Dollar". Do you have any information? Can you relate it back to the book?

Well, Noah Fleisher of Heritage forwarded a press release on their August 8th Chicago sale, featuring the Mickley 1804 dollar. -Editor

There is no other coin in American numismatics with as storied and famous a history as the Class I 1804 $1, of which only eight exist. Heritage Auctions will be offering the Mickley-Hawn-Queller specimen of the 1804 $1, graded PR62 by both PCGS and NGC, from The Greensboro Collection, Part IV, as the lead lot in its Platinum Night event on Friday, Aug. 9, the centerpiece of the company’s Aug. 8-10 U.S. Coins Signature® Auction in Rosemont, IL.

“The Class I 1804 $1 is the undisputed King of American coins,” said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auctions, “and it is always an event when one of them shows up for auction. It’s the rare chance for a top collector to add their name, or the name of their collection, to a history that will never diminish in importance. It is, in many ways, numismatic immortality for whoever comes out on top, and we expect there will be many vying for that honor.”

It is widely believed that the 1804 $1 was not minted until about 1834, when the State Department ordered special sets of the coins struck specifically for diplomatic purposes. Records indicated that several of the Class II and Class III 1804 silver dollars were minted after that. In fact, Mint records from 1804 indicated a delivery figure of 19,570 silver dollars, though it is commonly held in numismatic circles that these were all leftover coins dated 1803.

The press release doesn't give any background on this particular 1804 dollar, so the articles appearing in the popular press don't, either. That requires a little more legwork. There's The Fantastic 1804 Dollar book, of course, where the MIckley specimen is described on p122. As noted in the press release, the coin was later sold in the Queller auction, and luckily a great Heritage pamphlet about the dollar is available on Google Books, and the catalog description is still available on the Heritage site - see the links below. The Queller pamphlet description is better than the present auction lot description, which lumps all the 1804 dollars and their pedigrees together into a giddy orgy of collective wonderfulness.

The specimen is named for Philadelphia collector Joseph J. Mickley. It was auctioned in 1867 by dealer Elliot Woodward and bought by William A. Lillendahl. Subsequent owners were dealer Edward Cogan, William Sumner Appleton, the Massachusetts Historical Society, Reed Hawn and David Queller.

Probably the biggest trove of information on the dollars is Q. David Bowers' 1999 book, The Rare Silver Dollars Dated 1804 and the Exciting Adventures of Edmund Roberts. -Editor