The "1900" Lafayette Dollar seems an interesting coin
Baylor8670
Posts: 79 ✭✭✭
Being a military history buff, it's nice to see Lafayette's contributions recognized on this coin. The coin itself has an interesting history as well (credit: CoinFacts):
- The only undated coin in US history
- All 50,000 coins were minted on the exact 100th anniversary of Washington's death (December 14, 1899)
- Apparently, US law prevented the coin from being pre-dated as 1900 so they added "Paris * 1900" as a quasi-date
- Paris hosted a World's Fair and Summer Olympics in 1900. This coin was issued as part of those festivities which is why they wanted 1900 on the coin even if it couldn't be the official mint date.
- The first commemorative dollar
- First "real" coin featuring a president (or any US citizen for that matter)
- First coin to have the same person on both sides
- 14,000 were melted down in 1945 because bureaucrat gonna bureaucrat
All that being said, the production of these coins had room for improvement. The design details and luster are sub-optimal. The coins were ejected into a hopper after striking like any normal coin. Supposedly, most were less than MS63 when they were distributed.
I recently acquired one and thought it might be cleaned at first but think it might be OK after reading about the luster and finish problems. Mine has a full but kind of soft cartwheel (at least when compared to a nice Morgan) on the reverse but only a very slight cartwheel on the obverse.
Mine also has an odd collection of swirls just under Lafayette's boot. It almost looks like someone doodled/scribbled on it. Of course, that is not what you want to see on your coin but I found several others with the same effect so fingers crossed mine is OK (I'll have it graded in the near future). Mine is not pictured below because my photography skills are lacking.
Most coins don't show the swirls. I assume/guess that's because of toning, wear and/or different varieties. Has anyone ever seen these swirls before and might know what caused them?
A nice, random 65+ for reference:
Example 1 of odd swirls under boot:
Example 2:
Example 3:
Example 4:
Comments
The Lafayette is a great coin and the swirls are die polish.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Lafayette landed in Georgetown SC on June 13, 1777 after two months at sea.
There is a historical marker near the bridge.
Alot of Revolutionary War activity in our neck of the woods.
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Cool thread and write up!
Thanks, Tom.
I was hoping that was the case. Most of the die polish lines I had seen before were either perfectly straight or close to it. I've never seen any like these (but I'm not a long-time collector).
There is a straight die polish line below the base extending from the front hoof to the middle of the base. It can be seen on all three of the examples of the coins with the circular die polish, too.
the swirling die polish is used to authenticate as all real ones have it
Per CoinFacts, 5 different reverse dies were used. That would be something if all 5 had these die polish swirls.
I'm pretty sure mine is the most common pairing, 1-B.
The Lafayette dollar is a cool, unusual coin. I'm curious, though, why would we regard it as "undated?" Doesn't it say 1900 right on it?
@Baylor8670 - Posts like your are proof that you can teach an old dog. I never knew any of that about the Lafayette Dollar. Thanks for posting!
Perhaps not all have swirling die polish, but I recall looking for and confirming the presence of die polish on seller's photos to ensure my raw Lafayette was genuine. I do that with all higher-grade raw purchases though. Mine is a 2C, the second most common DM.
See points 2-4 above.
You're excused for the tl;dr. haha
Right, and I see how that makes it something like spuriously dated ... but there's a date ...
But thanks in any case for the informative post.
Legend has it that when the doughboys landed in France in WWI they marched to Lafayette's tomb and exclaimed, "Lafayette, we are here!". We would not have won the Revolutionary War without France's and Lafayette's assistance. He and George Washington were like father and son.
There are 5 known rev dies used. I do not have the last one but here are 4 of them. The die polish swirl lines is only one one of them.
Damn it, 1946Hamm. Now, you're making me want to go get one of each. haha
That's a very cool, old-school set of Lafayette types.
It does look like your 1-B has the swirls and the others do not. I guess it makes sense they would have had to polish the most heavily-used reverse die.
Owned this one briefly this year. Now on the hunt for a higher graded example:
Tim
Check my Circulated Lafayette grading set in my by line for you Lafayette Dollar lovers. 😍
Lafayette Grading Set
Very cool set! It’s interesting to see every circulated grade.
One question: why the Alabama? Was it just a coin to get to 20 or is there some other meaning to it?
I do Lafayette dollars by die variety and have set up a registry of thousands of them by die pair. Also have a nice complete set of them. The five die pairs can be entirely attributed by the position of the olive branch on the lower reverse.
Of the certified (with duplicates removed) registrations, by DuVall variety:
1A : 4.5%
1B : 52.1%
2C : 34.5%
3D : 8.7%
4E : 0.2%
Anecdotally, after seeing quite a number of uncertified as well, this is roughly the percentages:
1A : 4% (~1/25)
1B : 53% (1/2-2/3)
2C : 35% (~1/3)
3D : 8% (~1/12)
4E : negligible, 4 known
The obverse hub had no legend. So that was punched into each of the dies. That makes them positional distinct.
1 : slightly dropped A/DOLLAR
2 : doubled final S/STATES and, more notably, final A/AMERICA
3 : upper right dot too close to first A/AMERICA
4 : wide spacing of RICA/AMERICA
The reverse is most easily characterized by the lowest leaf on the olive branch.
A : remarkably larger, blob-shaped
B : leaf point between 1 and 9, branch set high and often has die scratches
C : leaf point above right side of 9
D : leaf point above center of 9
E : leaf entirely to the left of 1900
The 1C pairing does not likely exist. There have been examples where the obv 2 doubling is hard to see, but each I have seen had the A and the position of right star confirming obv 2.
It is also interesting as the sole 90% silver dollar classic commemorative. It was produced during the time of the Morgan dollar. While it sold to the public at a significant (and barely tolerated) premium to its face value, many circulated. The Great Depression almost assuredly was the reason.
I have a lot on these and had planned to write a booklet on them. However, I have decided a journal article this year will be more appropriate.
That's a nice looking example Tim.
Good luck on the hunt!
This thread finally got me to read more about Gilbert du Motier. Lots of very interesting history behind the man.
https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/marquis-de-lafayette/
https://www.lovelafayette.org/why-lafayette/about-lafayette/who-was-lafayette#:~:text=More than anything else, Lafayette,and finally fulfill his dream.
I was putting together a set of coins minted in 1900 (not to include all mint marks). I had them all and posted a picture of it. Then some irritating person chimed in that I was missing the Lafayette Dollar. I tried to ignore him but it kept bugging at me. The more I tried to ignore it the more it bugged me. In my mind there was now an empty hole in my 1900 coin collection so I broke down and got one in AU-58. Nice coin and did appreciate the story behind it.
For those who might think that the obverse is an "original design," check out the obverse of the 1881 Yorktown Medal. I have heard that this copper piece is quite scarce, but I don't know that for sure. I "upgraded" from a white metal piece a few decades ago.
Here one in white metal, which I sold after I acquired the copper piece.
And here is my better Lafayette Dollar, which is only an MS-63. The Lafayette Dollar was rather expense when I was working on my "old commemorative" type set. So I bought this lesser example. I won another one in circulated condition as a prize for a FUN exhibit.
You should have continued to ignore the troll. Your Lafayette was minted 12/14/1899.
Here are some examples from my set of the varieties.
1A
1B
2C
3D (not mine, as mine has no trueview, another example)
4E
Yea I know. But since it's stamped 1900 and has an interesting story I was compelled to add it...lol