The issues that decide what a set costs, series by series — with sourced survival where a census exists and the withheld state where it does not.
The big silver cartwheel of the American West — legislated into existence, melted by the hundred million, chased ever since.
Key Dates · 1878–1904, 1921 →The first United States silver dollar, the run that followed it, and the coin dated 1804 that nobody struck in 1804 — a series where the Mint's own bookkeeping is the puzzle.
Key Dates · 1794–1803 · and the 1804 dollars →The workhorse of American silver — 84 million pieces struck because the dollar stopped, kept in bank vaults rather than spent, and attributed one hand-punched die at a time until the Mint announced it could make identical dies.
Key Dates · 1794–1836 →The coin the Mint kept not making — eighteen blank years out of forty-three, a Spanish coin doing its job, an invented mintage still in the price guides, and a public-domain standard reference whose plates illustrate the whole series.
Key Dates · 1796–1838 →Hard Money. Hard Numbers. · Not investment advice. Some links pay us a commission — disclosures. Affiliate economics never determine research conclusions or rankings. © 2026 OunceDesk. Every figure classed OBSERVED / DERIVED / ESTIMATED / SPECULATIVE.