The Early
Dollars
Every die was cut by hand, so no two of these coins were ever quite alike — and that single fact is what makes the series readable, collectable, and, in one famous case, forgeable. A guide to seeing the first American silver dollar for what the record says it is.
James P. Rice Jr. · 9 chapters · 12,355 words · The series →
BOOKS
Contents
- The First SilverReadA shop with horses, a statute about to expire, and 1,758 coins on an October afternoon — where every early dollar comes from.
- The CarouselReadAccepted by count, exported by the crate: the banker's habit that consumed ninety-seven percent of the series.
- The Way of SeeingReadNo two dies were ever alike. An 1881 auction catalogue taught the hobby to read them — and the skill has never stopped paying.
- Twelve MarriagesReadA teaching set, ranked by lesson rather than price: attribute these twelve and you can attribute the series.
- The Ledger and the DateReadThe Mint counted deliveries, never dates — and confusing the two columns manufactured the most famous coin in America.
- Presents for KingsReadThe Mint's cabinet had no 1804 dollar in 1838 — because the coins were only then being made, as gifts for a Sultan and a King.
- The Census-Taker of BrooklynReadJohn A. Nexsen ran an eighteen-year census of the most disputed coin in America, found the decisive evidence, and repudiated his own theory in print.
- The Fakes, Shown OpenlyReadThe ghost census, the shipwreck that never sailed, and the Mint as its own counterfeiter — the series' syllabus, photographed.
- Collecting the SeriesReadWhat a completable set means in a series whose best coins live in museums — three honest paths, and two habits of numerical hygiene.
- About the EvidenceRead
BOOKSeach with the provenance it carries in print
Plates from the book
The first year, and the only marriage: one obverse die, one reverse die, every 1794 dollar in existence.
The plate that settled the 1804 argument: milling to the edge on the 1798, beading with a plain rim on the 1804.
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