U.S. Dollar 1799
Sergey74
Posts: 190 ✭✭✭
Hi everybody. Here is one coin after the restoration. I give you a photo right away before and after it. I gave master the photos of the same coin in good condition and combined it for accuracy. What do you think about? The coin isn't toned, it's lying on the shelf. It's a rare coin in Russia and i guess in the world now. It had a hard life, i think. So I'm glad to have even this one. The year of Washington's death, reign of John Adams, the first time of new republic, a piece of history. One man said to me "i would have it without restoration" and i think it's like trash for lots of people but it's not bad for me.
Before 
After
Peace.
12
Comments
Here is another piece of trivia for you. The dollar was the only U.S. silver coin which bears the date 1799. That doesn’t mean that it was necessarily the only silver coin the U.S. Mint made that year because the mint often struck coins with a prior year’s date on them. But, given the production history of the other silver coins, it probably was the only silver coin that was made in 1799.
Production of the half dime, quarter (dated 1796) and half dollar was suspended in 1797. Dimes were issued in 1798. So there is a good chance that the dollar really was the only U.S. silver coin produced in 1799.
Thanks for this information. I still have a question about "unit" on the coin's edge. One man here supposed it was something "this coin is like crown, 8 reales". Does anybody know the truth? Perhaps it was variant of name new currency? Maybe crown, 8 reales named "unit"?
Peace.
the 15 star reverse is my favorite variety of that year
Super interesting! I have to say they did a pretty decent job. You can plainly tell it was repaired (largely a good thing) but it looks very presentable as a type coin. It would be neat to see a video of exactly how someone does this. Thanks for sharing.
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you" Matthew 6:33. Young fellow suffering from Bust Half fever.
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The word "unit" on the edge referred to the fact that the dollar was the basic unit of the U.S. monetary system. Everything was based on the dollar. The subsidiary coins were called "half dollar" and "quarter dollar." The cent or 1/100th of a dollar was sub unit. The gold coins were based on the "eagle" or $10 gold piece. There were half eagles ($5) and quarter eagles ($2.50), but the dollar was still the base "unit."
The crown, a British coin that was worth 5 shillings and the Spanish 8 reales were silver coins that were similar in size and weight to the dollar. The U.S. dollar was based on the Spanish 8 reales which passed as a dollar in the United States until 1857.
A Spanish 8 reale.
A British crown of King William III.
I think he's a very talented master. He restores coins and other things. And i had to wait his free time about 3-4 months.
BillJones, thank you for explaining.
Peace.
Thanks for the explanation, I always wondered about the meaning of "Unit" in the Draped Bust Dollar edge lettering context. Make sense now!
One other question: is there any meaning to the rectangular or circular symbols associated with the Draped Bust Dollar edge lettering? Mason-like symbols, random fillers or something to do with the tooling perhaps? I could understand the edge lettering stars, but never understood the other oddball symbols. I don't know if there was ever any written records explaining them from the Mint's design perspective perhaps?
Your question about the meaning of the other symbols on the edge is an interesting one. I have never thought about it, and the advent of slabbing has made it hard to study the edge of these coins. Many of the founding fathers were Masons. That might be part of the explanation for them.
I guess it looks like Spanish colonial edge... No?
Peace.
The use of "unit" as a quasi-alternative name for the dollar derives from the language written into the Coinage Act of 1792, from which the coinage derived it's legal existence. All references to 1 dollar coins in the legislation call them "dollar or unit", to remove the legal ambiguity and create a distinction between "the dollar" as a unit of currency and "the dollar or unit" to refer specifically to a 1 dollar coin.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.
Truly i don't understand it fully... Where did they get the word "unit"? Did they use it for calling 8 reales or crown or US dollar later? Sorry, i hope i am not so stupid but i have some border with translation for understanding.
Peace.
It derives from the new, revolutionary concept of "decimal currency", where each currency subunit was worth 1/10th of the previous. The mil was 1/1000th of the unit; the cent was 1/100th, the disme (dime) was 1/10th of the unit. And the eagle was 10/1 units. But the one dollar coin was one unit of currency. The dollar isn't a fraction of the new currency unit, and isn't a multiple - it is one whole unit. Mathematically, the fraction of the dollar that made up a dollar was 1/1, or 1 unit. This unit - the dollar, and not the pound, or crown, or anything else British-derived - was the basis from which the values of all the fractions and multiples were then based.
Decimal currency seems intuitive and logical to us in the 21st century, because we've all been using it all our lives and can't imagine money being anything different. But to have a currency system where all of the various fractional and multiple coins could, using simple base-10 mathematics, be reckoned back to a single fixed unit of currency - the dollar - this was revolutionary. And it needed to be explained clearly to ordinary American people who up until then might have been using lots of Spanish dollars in commerce but still reckoning their monetary value using the old British pounds/shillings/pence monetary system (under which a Spanish dollar was worth 4 shillings 6 pence, or thereabouts).
Spanish dollars weren't called "units" prior to the Coinage Act, because they weren't the basis of the currency in the American colonies. And this usage fell out of favour by the early 1800s, by which time everyone had gotten used to the new currency system and with everyone simply calling them "dollars".
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.
Thanks for the further explanation of the "Unit". I had no idea about its relationship to base-10 as you just described.
Interesting, around this time in 1795, France began to embrace the metric system also based off of base-10.
In Russia tsar (king) Peter 1 accepted the same system in 1700: 100 kopeek=1 rouble - the first in Europe and modern world, i guess. I think he has known about this idea travelling in Europe earlier.
If i have understood right in the USA it was like "our main monetary unit is dollar" so they used this word in the inscription.
Peace.
Sorry for up. This guy made the work with the coin dead three weeks ago being 35 years old. He had a weak heart. Take care of your health, guys.
Peace.
Reconstructive surgery and a history lesson. I love this place. Thanks for sharing. Peace Roy
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I am sorry that the gentleman who did the repair work for you passed on. He had a talent, and he did a great job.
Most of the artists who do that kind of work in the U.S. avoid working in the date area. There is always the issue of changing the date for less than good purposes. Still when the hole was at "17," there was no doubt that it was a 1799 dollar.
If you don't mind... His name was Alexey Tolstikov. I've sent him another couple of coins two months ago and now his widow send me back my parcel. So young.
Peace.
Very sorry to hear. He was very talented, I am glad you were able to experience his work.
@Sergey74 Where in Russia was this coin found? I was there most recently in 2019. I visited Moscow and St. Petersburg, but I was never able to find any US coins.
Collector of Capped Bust Halves, SLQ's, Commems, and random cool stuff! @davidv_numismatics on Instagram
Davidk7, i guess all coin's trade now is online. I visited Moscow 2 years ago and came in one of the most famous coin's shop but i wasn't surprised. Talking about the American coins in Russia there are lots of them in selling but very few early coins. And perhaps you shouldn't buy it here because it's illegal to go abroad with it from here.
Peace.
Sorry, didn't see your reply until now. Interesting to know there aren't many early coins. I just remembered, I actually did find some US coins there in a shop in St.Petersburg, but they were just a few circulated Seated and Barber coins. I didn't know it was illegal to take them out of the country? My dad will be going back for dental work soon so maybe I'll see if he can find anything interesting there.
Are there a lot of US collectors over there or do they stick to Soviet and Russian Empire coinage?
Collector of Capped Bust Halves, SLQ's, Commems, and random cool stuff! @davidv_numismatics on Instagram