Have You Seen These Coins?

I believe that I saw the 1804 dollar and 1913 nickel at the Smithsonian. However that was many many moons ago.

Not these specific coins, but
I have seen some other extremely rare or unique coins in the strong room of British Museum Coins and Medals Department.

Wow! Very Nice!

Have seen them at the Smithsonian. Very interesting to be in the vicinity of rarities such as these!

Yes - at the Smithsonian

I saw these two when I was there back in 2023.

I saw one of the 1913 nickels at the Money Museum in Colorado Springs when it was on tour in 2013. I was surprised to see it, I was just passing through town that day.

I have an 1804 dollar as well, a real one. (picture from the internet this is not my example)

In the early 1800's there was a shortage of silver coin in England but the had a lot of silver coins plundered from the Spanish. But the tower mint was in such sorry shape they could not undertake the recoinage of them. Initially they just counterstamped them.

But the counterstamps were easy to fake. And the coins were viewed with some contempt (A Dollar of Spain, for five shillings to pass, stamp the head of a fool, on the neck of an Ass)

In 1804 Matthew Boulton of the Soho Mint offered to overstrike the coins with new dies (skipping the need to melt them down cast ingots, roll strip etc etc etc). So he overstruck them and created the 1804 dollars seen above. On many of them you can still see traces of the Spanish Milled dollar underneath.

I have seen the US 1804 dollar, the 1913 nickel, the 1894 S dime, the 1822 half eagle, the 1849 double eagle, the 1870 S Half Dime, the 1873 CC no arrows dime and quarter, the 1873 CC no arrows quarter. But one of the more impressive things I've seen was the complete set of Robert Morris's proposed coinage for the US in 1783. The 1000 unit Mark, both varieties of the 500 unit Quint, both varieties of the 100 Unit and the unique 5 unit copper coin