Julia Casey submitted these additional details from the 1888 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article she discovered with a reporter interviewing numismatists of the day about the legendary 1804 dollar. Thanks! -Editor

NEW YORK, February 23—"Do you know how many silver dollars of 1804 there are in existence?" asked a well-known collector and dealer in curiosities of the POST-DISPATCH correspondent at a prominent auctioneer's room on Broadway.

"I don't suppose any one can say positively," he added, "but there are some men who can tell you where every one that is known to be in existence is at the present time. Come with me and I'll introduce you to some of them."

A few minutes later they were seated at a table in a restaurant on Eighth street with a number of prominent coin collectors and dealers.

"How many specimens of the 1804 dollar do you suppose there are in existence?" asked the gentleman who had introduced the correspondent, as the company seated themselves at the table.

"That would be pretty hard to say," answered Mr. David Proskey, one of the dealers in the group. "It has always been supposed that there were by thirteen, but the fourteenth one has recently been offered for sale. It is known that the dies were out of the possession of the United States Government for over a year and a half before they were destroyed. It can hardly be supposed that it was an accident, and there is no telling how many pieces were struck in that time and are being held back by the persons who had them made. The last one that turned up came to this country from Germany. How it got there is not known, but it is supposed that it was sent over by some person connected with the Mint so as to avoid suspicion. It was a beautiful specimen and had evidently been struck recently."

"The fact is," remarked Mr. Richard Cogan, another of the dealers, "that there is not and probably never was an original 1804 dollar. By original we mean, of course, one struck in that year. It is pretty well established now that at that time it was the custom to use a set of dies at the Mint till they were worn out, irrespective of the year they were dated. It is more than probable that all the specimens that were struck from the die of 1804 were made subsequent to that date."

"Of the thirteen or fourteen that are now known to exist," said Mr. Cogan, "two are in this city, four in Boston, one in San Francisco, one in Denver, Colo., and the others are scattered all over the intervening country. I could give you the name of every person who owns one. Maj. Wetmore of 15 Waverly place has one which he believe to be the ‘only original' one. It is somewhat worn and has evidently been in circulation. This does not usually add to the value of a coin, but in this case, if this could be made to prove that it was struck in the year it was dated, it might make a big difference."

"How much is a specimen worth to-day?" asked the correspondent.

"That would be pretty hard to say," replied Mr. Cogan. "They have sold all the way from $600 to $1,500, and that, too, for the same specimens. There are so few of them that they have no regular market value and the price paid for them depends entirely upon how badly the purchaser wants one. Probably if one was offered for sale to-day it could not be bought for less than $1,000."

"What did the last one bring that was offered for sale?"

"The last time one was offered for sale," said Mr. Cogan, "the auction did not come off. The coin belonged to the son of the late Dr. Linderman, formerly Director of the Mint at Philadelphia. It was to have been sold at auction at Bangs' last summer, together with a lot of other fine pattern pieces and restrikes which had come into Dr. Linderman's possession while he was in charge of the Mint. On the day the sale was to have taken place it was stopped by the Government officials."

"There is considerable confusion," continued the speaker, "as to the meaning of the law in regard to these pattern pieces and proofs, as they are called, but it has always been understood that they could be had by those in charge of the Mint by payment of the bullion value of the metal for them. In this way a great many of them have got into the hands of dealers, and there is hardly a collection of any note in the country that does not contain some of them. In many cases, they are made of other metals than those used in the regular coinage—aluminum, platinum and several others. No one knows on exactly what ground the Government interfered with the sale of these, other than the general claim that they belonged to the Government. It is supposed that some technical point will be raised, if the case ever comes to a settlement, that the bullion value had not been paid, or something like that. At any rate the sale was stopped, and young Mr. Linderman was obliged to give bonds to produce the coins when called upon, They are still, I suppose, in his possession."

The correspondent afterwards learned that the case had been taken up by a Broadway coin company, but no information as to the exact status of the affair at present could be obtained. A member of the company said that it was probable that "things would be arranged" so that the sale could come off in a few months. In the meantime they were anxious to keep the matter out of the papers as much as possible and refused to answer any questions in regard to it. It was also learned that the Government makes no claim whatsoever to the 1804 dollar, but only to the pattern pieces, though it is said by collectors that its claim to one would be as good as to the other.

"Are any of the cents valuable?" Mr. Cogan was asked. "The date that is usually considered most valuable," he replied, "is the 1799; but the highest price I ever knew to be paid for one was for an 1804. It was a fine specimen—a bright red. This, unless a coin has been scoured or treated with vinegar, shows that it is uncirculated, just as it came from the mint. An old dealer can tell in a moment whena coin has been ‘doctored.' People sometimes speak of anything that is not worth much as ‘not worth a red cent,' but if that cent happens to be one of a rare date, its redness is $50 in its owner's pocket. This coin brought $205. I think it was the highest price ever paid for a United States cent."

"Are there any other American coins as rare as the 1804 dollar?"

"Some rarer, but none as valuable," was the reply. "It is more the reputation the 1804 dollar has than its rarity that makes it so valuable. There is one date of the gold double-eagle, of which there is only one specimen in existence, and that is in the mint. But it has nothing of the reputation of the 1804 dollar, and if one should be struck to-day, as the so-called 1804 dollars have been—from the original dies, it would not probably bring over $500. A short time ago, Mr. James V. Dexter, of Denver, Colo., bought an 1804 dollar of Mr. Hazleton [sic. Haseltine] of Philadelphia for $1,000. Then he turned around and sued him for damages, claiming fraud, on the ground that the coin was not rare enough, in comparison with others, to be worth that amount. Mr. Hazleton [sic.] settled the matter by producing a collector who was willing to give $1,500 for the coin. It is still in Mr. Dexter's possession."

"Julia, thanks for transcribing the Post-Dispatch article. It is interesting, if not wholly accurate.

"You are correct in changing the erroneous "Haselton" into "Haseltine". His name was also sometimes spelled "Hazeltine" including by Haseltine (as Holmes would say, "Perhaps you have seen my monograph on this subject in The Asylum").

"You are also correct that Richard Cogan was the son of the pioneering dealer Ed Cogan. Richard dispenses mostly accurate information in this interview, but was not nearly as successful in business as his famous father.

"The biggest error in the article came from whomever discussed the Dexter matter. Dexter bought the silver dollar from the May 14-15, 1885 Chapman Brothers sale (the Chapman's had purchased it from an 1884 Adolph Weyl sale in Germany). Dexter set an auction record by paying $1000 for this 1804 dollar. Dexter, abetted by Ed. Frossard, came to doubt the genuineness of the dollar—thinking it might be a restrike—and sued the brothers Chapman for redress. The brothers prevailed in the ensuing legal action. As far as I know, Haseltine was not involved with this transaction in any way.

"What I find most interesting about this article is that it provides a snapshot of what dealers knew—or thought that they knew—about 1804 dollars at this point in time. Definitely worthy of publication in (as George Kolbe was wont to say), The Big E!

"Ed Cogan's two sons, Richard and George, were not unknowledgeable, but they were not successful, either. There was something of an epidemic of dynastic failure among 19th century dealers: W. Elliot Woodward's son Harlow was a failed dealer, as was William Strobridge's son T.R. So much for numismatic nepo babies!"

Thanks! At my request Julia also leveraged ChatGPT to envision my February 2026 Nummis Nova dinner as if it were taking place in 1888. See my Numismatic Diary article elsewhere in this issue. -Editor