1805 Silver Dollar Found!

As quoted at the bottom of the article: "The above-story is fiction. It is not intended to contain criticism of President Jackson, Emperor Xuanzong, or any other government official, living or dead. All quoted statements above are fabricated. As far as I know, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has not issued any statement regarding a rare U.S. coin, nor about U.S. Proof Sets from the 1830s. Likewise, I am not aware of a Professor David Jones who is a specialist in Chinese history. If anyone named Jones has ever made a statement that bears resemblance to my fictional quote in the story, it is just a coincidence.

A political argument is neither expressed nor implied. It is not suggested that the Chinese Government possesses any rare U.S. coins. Indeed, this story is a joke. It is VERY UNLIKELY that a genuine 1805 U.S. silver dollar exists."

Happy April Fools' everyone!

When I saw the title I thought the Ostheimer specimen was returning to the marketplace.

Yes there IS an 1805 dollar out there that was declared to be genuine by two testing labs and by the recognized early dollar expert M H Bolender, author of the standard reference on the series.

It was finally identified in 1964 as an altered 1803 B-6 variety that had had the date altered and the stars cleverly altered so as to point at different denticals. After it was proven to be a fake it was the subject of a couple of lawsuits. It disappeared around 1966 I believe. I seem to recall that it was in a major collection that was sold within the past 10 years or so, but I don't think the coin itself was sold.