CoinsEarly DollarsReferences
Sources & evidence
Every important figure in this reference traces to one of the sources below. 37 of the 43 are physically held in the OunceDesk Archive; 6 are not, and the ledger says which is which, because a sentence resting on a book we have read is a different kind of sentence from one resting on a book we have not.
What the badges mean
Held, and quotable, are separate questions
37
HELD in the Archive
The document is on disk and has been read. Page references point into it.
37
PUBLIC DOMAIN · quotable at length
United States federal publications and works published before 1930. Where you see an extended quotation on this site, it comes from one of these.
6
LIMITED · facts with attribution only
In copyright, or under terms that permit citation but not reproduction. Facts are used with attribution; nothing is quoted at length and no images are reproduced.
The distinction matters most for four modern books this reference depends on and does not hold: Bolender's B-numbers (1950), Bowers and Borckardt's BB-numbers (1993), Newman and Bressett's Class I/II/III taxonomy (1962), and Ferguson's study of the Dexter specimen (2015). Every attribution system and the entire 1804 taxonomy on this site originate with those works. They are cited as the origin of what they established and are never quoted — and where they are the only support for a claim, the page says so on the page rather than here.
United States Mint · Director Elias Boudinot; Treasurer Benjamin Rush
Jefferson's transmittals of January 11, 1803 (CY1802) and January 13, 1804 (CY1803), with Boudinot's reports and the Treasurer's coinage abstracts, including the comparative statement 1798–1802. Source of the 1798–1803 delivery figures and of the quarterly abstracts that check them.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_GOVERNMENTArchive id: mint-annual-report-1803--ia-mintreport1803
United States Mint · Elias Boudinot
Boudinot's report on CY1804 operations: silver coinage "greatly exceeded that of the year 1803", attributed to "the late scarcity of Spanish dollars, occasioned by the great exportation of them, for mercantile purposes".
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_GOVERNMENTView source ↗
United States Mint
"Coinage of the Mints of the United States from their Organization, by Calendar Years", pp. 209–210 — the official registry AND the Director's own NOTE that it counts deliveries, not dates. The single most important document in this series.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_GOVERNMENTArchive id: mint-annual-report-1888--ia-annualreportofdi1888unit-y8i7
United States Mint
The same coinage table at p. 173, with the silver columns legible. Corroborating printing for every delivery figure quoted from S3.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_GOVERNMENTView source ↗
United States Mint
Coinage by year 1793–1839 at p. 8 — the earliest printing of the by-year dollar series this Archive holds.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_GOVERNMENTView source ↗
United States Mint
Table LV, "Total U.S. coins manufactured by year and class, 1793–1970", p. 248. Used only as an arithmetic check on the 1804 silver aggregate.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_GOVERNMENTView source ↗
Jacob R. Eckfeldt & William E. DuBois, Assayers of the Mint
The book in which the 1804 dollar first appears in print — Plate II no. 3, "Dollar, 1797–1805", engraved by Saxton's medal-ruling machine from an electrotype of a Mint Cabinet coin. Also the source of "No dollars from 1806 to 1838, except 1000 in 1836" (p. 278).
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_MINT_PUBLICATIONView source ↗
Montroville W. Dickeson
The first by-date variety treatment of the dollar series (pp. 245–255) and the coinage tables. Also the origin of the series' most consequential wrong sentence: "The designs the same, with one type and but one variety, and the number coined was 19,570." Cite as evidence of what was believed, not as attribution.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINSECONDARY_EARLYView source ↗
James Ross Snowden, Director of the Mint
The Mint Cabinet's own published description in the restrike era.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_MINT_PUBLICATIONView source ↗
American Numismatic and Archæological Society
W. Elliot Woodward's letter of August 27, 1867 on a false "1804" altered from an 1803 (p. 163) — the first documented 1804 forgery; and the Boston Numismatic Society meeting of August 29, 1867 at which the Mickley 1804 was examined (p. 164).
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_CORRESPONDENCEArchive id: ajn-vols1-5-1866--ia-ajn1866vols01to05
W. Elliot Woodward
The dollars run lots 1673 (1794) through 1696 (the 1804). Lot 1696 carries the earliest 1804 census in this Archive — "Of the four specimens known, two, it is certain, were struck at a period subsequent to 1804." Also lot 1673, the Mickley 1794.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_AUCTION_RECORDArchive id: woodward-mickley-1867-priced--ia-pricedcatalogueo00wood-9
W. Elliot Woodward
An independent scan of the same sale, used to corroborate the lot numbering that corrects the published "lot 1676".
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_AUCTION_RECORDView source ↗
American Numismatic and Archæological Society
Édouard Frossard's "Dollar of 1804" note at p. 158 — the Eckfeldt–DuBois plate put into circulation as an authentication tool, and the printed error that dates Stickney's acquisition to 1846.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINSECONDARY_CONTEMPORARYArchive id: ajn-vols15-18-1880--ia-ajn1880vols15to18
John W. Haseltine, Philadelphia
The founding text of American die-variety collecting: the H-numbers, assigned in the sale catalogue itself for a book that was never written. The dollar section begins at lot 78. Contains the 2 Leaves / 3 Leaves distinction and the fillet-head centring description that PCGS still recognises.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_VARIETY_CATALOGUEArchive id: haseltine-type-table-1881--ia-catalogueofjohnw00hase-0
American Numismatic and Archæological Society
John A. Nexsen's first published 1804-dollar census, April 1887 (six pieces); the July 1887 "127 dollars of 1804" counterfeit-panic clipping; E. L. Royal of the Mint Cabinet correcting the public record in October 1887; and Nexsen's addendum on the Linderman coin.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_CENSUSArchive id: ajn-vols19-22-1884--ia-ajn1884vols19to22
George G. Evans, Philadelphia
The first silver deposit (Bank of Maryland, July 18, 1794) and the first silver delivery of October 15, 1794; the "Sketch of the 1804 Dollar" reprinting Chapman's May 1885 catalogue with a seven-piece census, the restrike diagnostics and the 381.5-grain weight; and the earliest instance of the China-shipwreck legend located in this Archive.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINSECONDARY_CONTEMPORARYView source ↗
American Numismatic and Archæological Society
Nexsen's revised twelve-piece census, April 1891; Sylvester S. Crosby reprinting the Northampton newspaper of March 5, 1805 with the full CY1804 abstract (the 19,570 figure); and Crosby's "Mint Reports and Early Coin Dates", quoting the Director's NOTE and listing the dates the printed figures require you to believe in.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_CENSUSArchive id: ajn-vols23-25-1888--ia-ajn1888vols23to25
American Numismatic and Archæological Society
Nexsen, March 31, 1894: the Rosenthal coin admitted as XIII, and two claimed 1804 dollars examined and rejected as alterations — one "skilfully executed", one "in a very bungling manner".
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_CENSUSArchive id: ajn-vols26-28-1891--ia-ajn1891vols26to28
American Numismatic and Archæological Society
Nexsen, July 1897 — the beading argument, and the decisive published analysis in the whole 1804 literature: milling to the edge on 1794–1803 dollars against beading with a plain rim beginning with the 1836 dollar. Also W. E. DuBois on Robert Scot's appointment.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_TECHNICAL_ANALYSISArchive id: ajn-vols31-32-1896--ia-ajn1896vols31to32
American Numismatic and Archæological Society
Nexsen, April 1905: the recantation and the final thirteen-piece census. "No one now believes that they were coined in 1804. I must therefore repudiate all that I said in these articles about originals and restrikes."
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_CENSUSArchive id: ajn-vols39-41-1904--ia-ajn1904vols39to41
American Numismatic Association
"The 1794 Dollar" — a collector's letter giving the star-orientation and hair-curl diagnostics that separate a genuine 1794 from an altered 1795. Still a working field guide.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_CORRESPONDENCEArchive id: numismatist-vol8-1895--ia-thenumismatist1895vol08
American Numismatic Association
The by-date series on early dollars; the Snowden vs Dickeson mintage discrepancy for 1799; and the New Orleans Times-Democrat's "Diamond Dollars of 1804" shipwreck tale printed entire — alongside the hobby's contemporary refusal to believe it.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINSECONDARY_EARLYArchive id: numismatist-vol12-1899--ia-thenumismatist1899vol12
Henry Chapman · Davis & Harvey, Philadelphia
Lot 849, the best single nineteenth-century document on a Class I 1804 dollar: a six-piece "original" census, the 415-grain weight, T. L. Comparette's written comparison with the Mint's own coin, and Stickney's letter of July 2, 1867 reprinted in full.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_AUCTION_RECORDView source ↗
American Numismatic Association
Farran Zerbe's report of the Stickney sale: the 1804 dollar at $3,600 to "Hercules", the Brasher doubloon at $6,200 in the same sale, a five-day total of $37,859.21 — and the sentence that fixed the coin's title, "The 1804 dollar has been restored as the 'King of American Rarities'".
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_MARKET_REPORTArchive id: numismatist-vol20-1907--ia-thenumismatist1907vol20
American Numismatic Association
"The Idler-Granberg 1804 Dollar", printing Capt. John W. Haseltine's letter defending it as an original — thirteen arrows, intact edge lettering, the weights — and the admission that gives the game away: "Forty years ago I knew that Mr. Idler had an 1804 Dollar and he bound me to secrecy in reference to it, as he made his electrotypes from it."
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_CORRESPONDENCEArchive id: numismatist-vol22-1909--ia-thenumismatist1909vol22
American Numismatic Association
"Early Mint Records Not by Calendar Year", quoting Edgar H. Adams in the New York Sun generalising the delivery-vs-date problem to the whole early series: "it is extremely doubtful if a single piece bearing the date of 1804 was struck in that year at the mint and possibly the issue mentioned should be credited to 1803."
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINCONTEMPORARY_ANALYSISArchive id: numismatist-vol23-1910--ia-thenumismatist1910vol23
American Numismatic Association
"An 1804 Dollar 'Rediscovered'" — the Lancaster, Ohio altered-date coin that had "been discovered annually for 15 or 20 years".
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINCONTEMPORARY_REPORTAGEArchive id: numismatist-vol35-1922--ia-thenumismatist1922vol35
Theodore J. Venn
The reconstruction that splits the Mint's combined 204,791 into 1794 = 1,758 and 1795 as the balance, and the report of "perfect accord in placing the coinage of 1796 dollars at 72,920". The reason anyone quotes 1,758.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINSECONDARY_ANALYSISArchive id: numismatist-1927-march--ia-numismatist1927march
A. Barton Hepburn
The export-and-recoinage arbitrage that consumed the series, stated plainly — American dollars accepted by tale in the West Indies, Spanish pieces recoined at the Mint "the depositors reaping the profit" — and Jefferson's 1806 suspension of dollar coinage.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINSECONDARY_STANDARDView source ↗
US Senate (S. Rept. 235 pt. 2, 53d Cong., 2d sess., 1894)
The Act of April 2, 1792 §9 — the dollar at 371 4/16 grains pure, 416 grains standard; the Act of March 3, 1794 §2 on the officers' bonds that delayed silver coinage; the Act of March 3, 1795 §5.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_LEGALView source ↗
Professional Coin Grading Service
Survival estimates, Numismatic Rarity numbers, condition census, pedigree chains and auction records, observed 2026-08-23. The best public census-level pedigree data for this series. Survival figures are PCGS's own estimates and are attributed to PCGS — never to Bowers — unless PCGS says so. Quoted under a LIMITED posture: facts with attribution, no extended quotation, no images.
○ NOT HELDLIMITED USETERTIARY_COMMERCIALView source ↗
Henry Chapman · Davis & Harvey
An independent digitisation of the same 1907 catalogue, corroborating the Stickney letter.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_AUCTION_RECORDView source ↗
Edgar H. Adams & William H. Woodin
Reference for the 1794–1804 pattern and experimental boundary, and the 1792 prologue.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINREFERENCEView source ↗
Sylvester S. Crosby
Establishes Crosby's method and standing — which is what makes his dissent on the 1804 dollar worth preserving rather than dismissing.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINREFERENCEView source ↗
American Numismatic Association
Early hobby-press circulation of the 19,570 figure as an 1804 mintage — a stage in the transmission chain.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINSECONDARY_EARLYView source ↗
US Senate (S. Rept. 703, 44th Cong., 2d sess.)
The Bowen minority report on the 1792 ratio, the displacement of Spanish coin, and the melting of full-weight American fractional silver: "Vainly did the United States Mint issue American fractional coins of full weight and value, as these were soon melted up, and the bullion sold at a high profit."
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_GOVERNMENTView source ↗
M. H. Bolender
The B-numbers, largely built on Haseltine's H-numbers. In copyright and NOT held in the OunceDesk Archive — cited as the origin of the numbering system, never quoted.
○ NOT HELDLIMITED USEREFERENCE_ONLY
Q. David Bowers with Mark Borckardt
The BB-numbers — a single continuous sequence across the whole series — and the modern survival estimates the trade quotes. In copyright and NOT held in the OunceDesk Archive; cited as the origin of the system, never quoted.
○ NOT HELDLIMITED USEREFERENCE_ONLY
Eric P. Newman & Kenneth E. Bressett
The Class I / II / III taxonomy and the 1834 diplomatic-set origin — the modern consensus this series' pages rest on for the origin story. In copyright and NOT held in the OunceDesk Archive; cited as the source of the taxonomy, never quoted.
○ NOT HELDLIMITED USEREFERENCE_ONLY
Mark Ferguson
A book-length study of the Dexter specimen. In copyright and NOT held in the OunceDesk Archive.
○ NOT HELDLIMITED USEREFERENCE_ONLY
Numista
Catalogue cross-references (N# and KM#) and community-derived value estimates, shown on issue pages as ESTIMATED context and refreshed under the licence's seven-day cache limit. Corroboration only; never the stored citation for a figure in this ledger.
○ NOT HELDLIMITED USETERTIARYView source ↗
United States Mint
The Pittman Act melt of silver dollars, cited here for one purpose only: to EXCLUDE it from this series. Those were Morgan dollars in Treasury vaults.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINPRIMARY_GOVERNMENTView source ↗
OunceDesk
Everything on these pages labelled DERIVED: the 1,439,517 series delivery total and its check against Eckfeldt & DuBois' 1,674,822; the 85,634 − 66,064 = 19,570 identity; the quarterly-to-annual sums for 1802 and 1803; the implied survival rates computed from Mint delivery figures against PCGS survival estimates; and the gram and troy-ounce equivalents of the statutory grain weights. These are our arithmetic on other people's observations, and they are labelled as ours wherever they appear.
● HELD IN THE ARCHIVEPUBLIC DOMAINOUNCEDESK_ANALYSISView source →
Negative disclosure
Sources deliberately not used
- Auction-house listing pages. Heritage, Stack's Bowers and GreatCollections lot pages are blocked to automated retrieval or barred by their terms. Every auction date and price on this site traces instead to a public-domain catalogue or periodical held in the Archive, or to PCGS's own census field, attributed as such. No search-snippet citations were needed.
- Auction-house and grading-service photography. The best photographs of these coins in existence, and in copyright. They are catalogued as references and neither downloaded, hotlinked nor reproduced. This is why the series currently ships with no coin photography at all.
- Wikipedia. Used for orientation, never as a proximate citation for anything published here.
- Population-report data. Grading-service population reports are proprietary. Everything on this site is a survival estimate, attributed to the party that made it.
How to read the classifications
OBSERVED — directly reported by a primary or authoritative source: statutes, Mint records, a nineteenth-century census by the man who compiled it, a priced auction catalogue. ESTIMATED — expert estimates with a stated methodology, such as grading-service survival figures; we report the figure and name the estimator. DERIVED — OunceDesk arithmetic or editorial synthesis over observed inputs, labelled as ours. SPECULATIVE — scenario reasoning, always flagged; there is none in this ledger.
Two rules specific to this series. Survival figures quoted from PCGS CoinFacts are attributed to PCGS, never to Bowers, even where PCGS's own narrative prose may paraphrase him — that misattribution is a known and easy error. And every census figure is published with its class and its date: sixteen 1804 dollars across three classes, as of 2026. A number without both is a fact about a year, not about the coins.
Corrections: research@ouncedesk.com — research that can't survive being wrong in public isn't research.
Evidence at a glance
OBSERVED
39 sources
ESTIMATED
2 sources
DERIVED
2 sources
Sourced figures on this page trace to the ledger below. Editorial judgement is labelled as ours, and prices we have not sourced are not published.
View all sources & evidence methodology →Continue: series overviewthe 1804 dollardie marriageskey dates & survival