Class I Silver Dollar 1804

Rank 03

This 1804 silver dollar is another one of the rarest and most expensive coins in the United States History. On August 30th, 1999 this coin sold for $4.14 million dollars at an auction. There are only eight 1804 silver dollars left in the entire world and are all worth well over one million dollars.

The few people that own these one of a kind coins, are dedicated collectors who are proud to own a piece of U.S. history.

Class I Specimens

History

In 1804, United States Mint records indicate that 19,750 silver dollars were struck. However, in keeping with common Mint practice at the time, these were all minted from old but still-usable dies dated 1803, and are indistinguishable from the coins produced the previous year. Silver dollars dated 1804 did not appear until 1834, when the U.S. Department of State was creating sets of coins to present as gifts to certain rulers in Asia in exchange for trade advantages. The U.S. Government ordered the Mint to produce "two specimens of each kind now in use, whether of gold, silver or copper". Since the silver dollar was still in use, but had last been recorded as produced in 1804, Mint employees struck several dollars with an 1804 date. Due to the cost-cutting measures of the US Mint in its early history and the reuse of 1803 dies, this act led to confusion.

The first 1804 silver dollars minted in 1834 were presented as gifts to Rama III, King of Siam and Said bin Sultan, Sultan of Muscat and Oman. The other five were dispersed under unknown circumstances after Ambassador Edmund Roberts died en route during the voyage. One was retained in the US Mint Coin Collection. In 1842, numismatists first learned of the 1804 dollar through a book displaying an illustration of the 1804 dollar from the Mint Cabinet. These silver dollars are known among numismatists as ?original? or Class I 1804 dollars. Eight of these coins are known to exist. One currently resides in the Smithsonian Institution, one is in the American Numismatic Association museum, and the other six are in private collections.

Popular legend states that the rare coin given by King Rama IV of Siam to Anna Leonowens, as seen in the story of Anna and the King of Siam and the movie The King and I, was indeed the same 1804 silver dollar produced in 1834 as a gift to Siam. This coin was kept in Anna is family for several generations, until in the 1950sit was sold by a pair of British ladies claiming to be Anna is descendants. This coin was displayed as part of the King of Siam collection at the Smithsonian Institution in 1983, where it was given the name the King of Coins. It was purchased by an anonymous collector in 2001, who purchased the entire set of coins from the King of Siam collection for over $4 million.