Last evening I was looking at a coin related book which apparently I'd never opened before after getting it for Christmas last year, Coins, Questions and Answers, An Official Whitman Guidebook... This one really opened my eyes with all sorts of neat little known coin related tidbits. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coins-Quest...9482259?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194106570&sr=1-1 We all know the US Mint burned down in 1816 but did you know the new building was a brick structure and that's when a new hydrolic press was introduced which replaced the older screw-type operation which used two oxen to operate and was guarded by a dog which cost three dollars (LOL) and was named Nero... Take Care Ben
...and if they paid with the newest, freshly minted silver dollars, that would be three 1804 silver dollars. Must have been one heck of a dog ! :thumb:
in 1816 the most recently minted silver dollars were dated 1803 (though they were made in 1804). The ones dated 1804 were first made in 1834, so they couldn't have been used to pay for the dog in 1816.