I never knew the true meaning of the title of “The Fantastic 1804 Dollar” book, until now…

Longacre

I was taking a read through the Esylum, which is the FREE weekly electronic newsletter from the Numismatic Bibliomania Society (you can sign up by going to www.coinbooks.org). I always thought that the title of the book “The Fantastic 1804 Dollar” was a bit silly, but after all these years, I finally understand the significance. It only took the Esylum to spell it out for me in black and white, though.

Here is the text from the newsletter:

“THOSE FANTASTIC AND FABULOUS COINS

Last week Pete Smith commented on John J. Ford's description
of an assay ingot as a "fabulous" piece. Pete quoted the
dictionary definition of "fabulous" - "of or like a fable,
imaginary, fictitious or legendary."

Tom DeLorey writes: "Many years ago Eric P. Newman told
me that the book he and Ken Bressett wrote was entitled
'The Fantastic 1804 Dollar' to denote that the coins were
just that, fantasies struck after the date shown on them,
a fact not generally known at the time. Of course, the
book made the coins even more popular and desirable
than ever before."

[The Newman-Bressett book was one of the first numismatic
books I ever read, and it took me a long time to catch on
to the true meaning of the title. -Editor]”

CaptHenway

ttt

Dentuck

How do you like the Paul Gilkes articles about The Fantastic 1804 Dollar currently running in Coin World?

ColonialCoinUnion

Fantastic post, Longacre.

rgCoinGuy

<< <i>Fantastic post, Longacre. >>



Fabulous!

Coinosaurus

I tore out the CW articles and have tucked them into my copy of Newman's book (unfortunately, not the "error" edition). The articles look like a "keeper".

Dentuck

Coinosaurus, I did the same thing!

Ken Bressett had told me the story before --- one of those great "behind the scenes" tales of the numismatic publishing world! I'm grateful to Paul G. for capturing it in these articles.