I was over in Europe and I saw some American silver dollars in quite good condition for what didn't seem like an altogether unreasonable price. One was from 1804 and they wanted 30 euros. Another was from perhaps around 1830 and was for 20 euros. How much would you usually expect to pay for these?
Haha, great to know. I don't know much about American minting, as you can see. Needless to say I didn't buy it.
Just read up on all of that. Interesting situation with the 1804 coin. Makes me want to go to the Smithsonian. What's the situation like for 1803? Are those coins at all accessible? I see that two years worth were printed for that year. Is there any way to know that your dollar would be from 1803, or 1804? Was there any differentiating mark, or the two coins are identical? Not that I'd have money to buy them, just curious about the values.
The 1803 is a lot cheaper (like several million cheaper.) but it is stil a pretty penny for the average collector. If you get ahold of the die variety references for he early dollars you will find an "emission sequence" which describes what order the varieties came from the mint. You can be pretty sure the last couple of varieties were issued in 1804.
And the price is goin up all the time on good fakes. Soon a good fake will be worth $10 or even more.
Interesting you should mention that. I just finished an article about a late 1800's counterfeiter 'Jim the penman'. He actually painted '''$50 bills'' and passed them off. They were very much sought after even then. Now they are woth thousands. funny, huh? So maybe those commie coins someday....
