Montroville Dickeson's Continental Dollars!

@fathom said:
Cool. Like Dickesons stuff.

I like them too! He was a very interesting and well-rounded person!

It's great he was making these way back then and made them contemporary to his period!

@DCW said:
Some really strong prices on exonumia lately!
The pieces you posted are really cool overstrikes. Good to see you back, John

Agree. I wonder if the buyers are getting their money from other areas, like cryptocoins which have been very strong lately.

@dcarr said:

@Zoins said:

@Maywood said:
@Zoins said: I wonder if these are the most restruck So-Called Dollar design, with the recent issue by Jeff Shevlin and Daniel Carr.

Yes, they probably are. I think it is a poor commentary that these keep being produced just because people can find a market for them, a market that grows smaller with each re-strike.

The prices in the HA auction seemed pretty strong. It would have been great to pick them up. I hope the buyer posts here!

@Mayeood said:
I am thinking these latest ones weren't even struck from the original dies, so they aren't a re-strike, reissue or anything like that, they'd be a copy. Is that right??

My understanding is that were struck by dies made from the original hubs. @dcarr and @SoCalledGuy would have more info.

The Shevlin Continental Dollar was entirely his offering. I was commissioned to strike them. He provided the hubs. I mounted them in my coin press with blank dies and basically "clashed" them intentionally to perform a hubbing process.

PS:
I recall a die being sold a couple years ago from the Fred Weinberg collection. That die is out there somewhere and I suppose that it could be used by someone. Although, considering the pretty high price paid for it, the owner might not want to risk damaging it. And, of course, they would need the die for the other side to strike anything. That die has the small "S" between the Delaware and Pennsylvania rings and presumably indicated strikes in silver:

https://coins.ha.com/itm/so-called-dollars/a/63183-91246.s?ic16

Note that the recently-sold over-strike on a 1925 Peace Silver Dollar has the "S", while the recently-sold Double Eagle over-strike does not.

The Shevlin die pair did not have the "S".

Great info Dan. It's cool to be able to create new dies from original hubs, similar to how working dies were made from working hubs.

Additionally, it seems like Bashlow's work with August Conrad Frank may have used new working dies and new working hubs made from original dies so that Bashlow's pieces aren't struck from original 1870s dies and may be further away from the original artifacts than Dan and Jeff's pieces.

@nencoin said:
We posted about the 852a back in 2013: https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/896653/check-out-this-neat-so-called-dollar

The original images are dead, but it's the same piece. That 852b is very cool.

Very nice! And a number of us posted in that thread over 10 years ago too!

Since that was your post, is there any possibility of finding those images?

Here's an interesting bit, if Bashlow donated the dies to the Smithsonian, how did one end up in a Heritage sale?

Hibler & Kappen said:
NOTE: In 1962, 7,200 White Metal restrikes were issued by the current owners of the dies, Empire Coin Company, owned by Q. David Bowers. The medals were minted by John Pinches & Sons, Ltd., of England. Empire Coin die varieties can be attributed by a small die gouge above the O of Continental in the denticles and a diagonal scratch below the C in Continental. Empire Coin Company then sold the dies to Robert Bashlow, who produced 2,000 Silver, 3,000 Goldine and 5,000 Bronze restrikes, together with "a few trial pieces in various metals." He later announced that "dies have already been donated to the Smithsonian Institution..." Thickness of these White Metal restrikes is approximately 2 1/2 mm. as compared with 3 mm. thickness of Dickeson piece, No. 854. Silver restrikes by Bashlow have small S on reverse and are approximately 2 3/4 mm. in thickness (no S on No. 852); Goldine and Bronze restrikes are approximately 2 1/2 mm. thick.

Has anyone ever seen, or is there a record, of these dies at the Smithsonian?