The Sultan of Muscat's 1804 silver dollar.
Mesquite
Posts: 4,075 ✭✭✭
Received an e-mail from Stacks today regarding the Sultan's 1804 silver dollar (Sultan of Muscat). Excuisite is certainly the word for it! If you open the link and then click on the coin itself you open up a quite lengthy history associated with the coin. Interesting indeed!
https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-4HYF8
https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-4HYF8
There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.
–John Adams, 1826
–John Adams, 1826
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Comments
I was sort of surprised to see how flat the obverse stars are on this specimen. Guess I never paid a lot of attention to them before. Not quite like what you see on the 1801-1803 Novodels. Then again, those were produced with superior technology decades after the 1804 silver dollars.
Novodels
None of the 1804 dollars that I have seen are nearly as detailed as the Proof "1803" dollars. I find differences, though, among the 1801, 1802 and 1803 novodels. I would not lump all of them together.
Proof 1802 Silver Dollars
Roadrunner: "Then again, those were produced with superior technology decades after the 1804 silver dollars."
This is not so clear. Besides, there are Proof coins from 1821 that are especially well detailed and have very strong mirrors. There are a few super-Proofs from the 1830s, too, though a very small number. Proofs from 1843 to 1848 tend to be very well detailed, though this is not always true. A point here is that the level of striking detail is not a function of technology or time period, in the context of 19th century Proof coins. Let us not forget the Newman 1818 quarter:
The Fabulous Eric Newman Collection, Part 4: Proof 1818 Quarter
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
–John Adams, 1826
Roadrunner: "I was sort of surprised to see how flat the obverse stars are on this specimen. Guess I never paid a lot of attention to them before. Not quite like what you see on the 1801-1803 Novodels"
None of the 1804 dollars that I have seen are nearly as detailed as the Proof "1803" dollars. I find differences, though, among the 1801, 1802 and 1803 novodels. I would not lump all of them together.
Proof 1802 Silver Dollars
Roadrunner: "Then again, those were produced with superior technology decades after the 1804 silver dollars."
This is not so clear. Besides, there are Proof coins from 1821 that are especially well detailed and have very strong mirrors. There are a few super-Proofs from the 1830s, too, though a very small number. Proofs from 1843 to 1848 tend to be very well detailed, though this is not always true. A point here is that the level of striking detail is not a function of technology or time period, in the context of 19th century Proof coins. Let us not forget the Newman 1818 quarter:
The Fabulous Eric Newman Collection, Part 4: Proof 1818 Quarter
I once saw a 1799 dollar that was such an amazing specimen striking that if I saw it in a Proof slab I would not object, and you know what a fusspot I am.
The obverse stars were so well struck that there was a small, conical, raised point in the center of each, not unlike a "nibble" (to use a word that should get past the censors.)
I have no idea where the coin is today.
TD
Roadrunner: "Then again, those were produced with superior technology decades after the 1804 silver dollars."
This is not so clear. Besides, there are Proof coins from 1821 that are especially well detailed and have very strong mirrors. There are a few super-Proofs from the 1830s, too, though a very small number. Proofs from 1843 to 1848 tend to be very well detailed, though this is not always true. A point here is that the level of striking detail is not a function of technology or time period, in the context of 19th century Proof coins. Let us not forget the Newman 1818 quarter:
I'm only going by what Bowers and other researchers have said. That is, that the Novodel dollars were probably struck in the 1850's to as late as the 1870's, when US mint proof striking quality was typically of much higher standards than in the 1830's. You don't see too many proof seated and trade dollars of the 1855-1875 period with the stars all flat.