July 2002 Issue

By James C. Johnston Jr.
Photos by Steven Vater

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One of fifteen known examples of the 1804 dollar, none of which were struck in 1804.

All 1913 Liberty Head, or “V” nickels were once owned by Col. Edward H.R.Green.

Col. Green lost a leg because his mother, millionaire Hetty Green - “The Witch of Wall Street,” wouldn’t pay for medical treatment for her young son.

The famed “Three Legged Buffalo” nickel.

The “1955 Doubled Die Cent.”

Col. Green was also a great collector of boats, antiques, women and stamps. He once owned all 100 examples of the inverted center 24 cent 1918 U.S. Airmail Stamp. Today each specimen has a value of $176,000.00

            
            There are a handful of United States coins which are so well known that even non-collectors know about them. Ever since I was a “kid-collector,” I was asked if I had ever owned or seen: an 1804 dollar, a 1913 Liberty or a “V-Nickel,” a “Three-Legged Buffalo” nickel, or a 1955 doubled die cent. As a kid, I said, “You’ve got to be kidding!”         

            These coins were the Holy Grails of most United States coin collectors, and at 58 years of age, I can now say that I have seen or owned three of these four coins. I have seen two examples of the much famed 1804 Dollar. One of them may be an altered-date coin.

            A cleaver faker can turn an 1801 dollar into an 1804 dollar by skillfully turning the numeral “1” into a “4.” My first encounter with an 1804 dollar of any sort was when I took the first of many trips to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The 1804 dollar coin is part of their American Type Set. It is of course under glass, and one can’t pull out a high power magnifying glass to examine it. I have been told that this coin has an altered date by one highly regarded expert. I was crushed.

          My next sighting of the elusive 1804 dollar was at Winterthur, the vast and beautiful home of Henry Francis du Pont, located near Willmington, Delaware. The wonderful mansion houses the greatest collection of Americana to be found anywhere. Furniture, silver, pottery, porcelain, and all things American both bright and beautiful are to be found here including an authentic 1804 silver dollar.

          It might be misleading to say an “Authentic” 1804 dollar, because there is just no such thing strictly speaking. No dollars bearing the date 1804 were actually struck in that year. According to Eric P. Newman and Kenneth Bressett, in their book The Fantastic 1804 Dollar, eight dollars with the date 1804 were struck at the Philadelphia Mint between 1834 and 1835 to be used in presentation sets to be given to such dignitaries as the King of Siam. These were proof strikes. The first of these was obtained in or about 1843 by the famous William Stickney, who traded a rare gold coin, the “ Immune Columbia,” for the 1804 dollar with the U.S. Mint.

          Seven more 1804 dated dollars were later struck by the mint for distinguished collectors.  This was not an unusual practice. The mint always seemed to be doing small favors in those days. I have in my United States stamp collection a wonderful folded stampless cover. It is a letter from George Dominjuez to R.M. Patterson, President (Director), U.S. Mint Philadelphia. The letter reads,

          The mint obliged collectors from time to time as well as business firms by striking coins to order like the 1804 dollars, and about the year, 1860, horrible examples of the scarce 1804 cent. These were horrible, because they were struck from rusty dies. Even uncirculated 1804 cent restrikes look pitted and worn.

          According to R.S. Yeoman’s A Guide Book of United States Coins A/K/A the Red Book, 19,570 dollars were struck in 1804 according to mint records, but it is most likely that dies from 1803 were used. Thus, these “1804” dollars would be dated “1803.”

          The 1913 Liberty, or “V-Nickel,” is one of those coins everybody has heard about. There are only five of them, and they were owned by one of the most fantastic collectors of coins and stamps ever to burst on the collecting scene, Col. Edward Howland Robinson Green. He was the son of Hetty Green, the infamous “Witch of Wall Street,” who was so cheap that she refused to pay for medical treatment for her only male child. This later caused little Edward to lose a leg. Hetty owned about 7,800 pieces of real estate and a fortune in excess of a hundred million dollars, but she took her son to a charity clinic where he was refused treatment when Hetty was recognized as a  millionaire wheeler and dealer on Wall Street.

          When she died, her son began to spend these millions in style on houses, women, yachts, great stamps and coins. Early on he bought a yacht for a million dollars, cut it in half to add  forty feet to its overall length to make it 255 feet long. One night, while riding at anchor, it just sank into the quiet and undisturbed waters of Buzzards Bay. Oh well...

          Green loved rare things.  When he discovered that there were five 1913 “V-Nickels,” he bought all of them and had a custom made case created for them so that he could carry them around with him to show them off. He also was the man who bought the only sheet of the most famous United States stamp error, the inverted C3 airmail.

          The 1937D “Three Legged Buffalo-Nickel” is somewhat rare, but much less rare than the 1913 “V-Nickel” or 1804 Dollar. I have owned more than half a dozen of these in fine to M.S. 63 condition. About 20,000 of these pieces may have been struck before the missing leg was noticed. A nice extra fine example may be had for between four and five hundred dollars.

          The 1936D Buffalo Nickel exists with three and a half legs and it is much scarcer than the 1937D Three Legged variety.

          The 1955 Doubled Die Cents are the best known error coins of my youth. Most of them showed up as change attached to packages of cigarettes which cost twenty-three cents. The vending machine people decided to put two one cent coins into the cellophane wrapping around the cigarette  pack so that a quarter would be all that was needed to operate the cigarette vending machines most frequently located in bars and stores.

          One young man, of whom I knew, caught onto this fact and went from bar to bar in his city buying out all the cigarette machines to get the one cent doubled die coins. He then resold the cigarettes at twenty cents a pack! He found enough doubled die 1955 cents to buy a new car for cash. Today a brown M.S. 63 1955 doubled die cent fetches about fifteen or sixteen hundred dollars.

          The story isn’t quite finished yet. When that young fellow got all that lovely cash for his 1955 doubled die cents and bought his sparkling new Chevrolet, he drove it home with pride. His father was a policeman who had come to this country as a child from Europe and was proud to be an honest  and upright American. When he saw his teenage son’s new car bought for cash, he went nuts. He proceeded to beat the hell out of him, because he thought his son was selling drugs!

          Things got sorted out and the coin market was explained.  The father had moral reservations about the ethics of making huge profits on these 1955 doubled die cents, but at least his kid wasn’t selling drugs!

 James C. Johnston Jr. was born in the historic Oliver Pond House in Franklin, Massachusetts where he has lived for 58 years. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in History and is the author of several books. He has also written more than 1,500 articles and monographs in The Numismatist, Linn’s Stamp News, The Regional Recorder, and other publications.

 Johnston was a teacher in the Franklin system for 34 years and has been associated with Johnston Antiques since 1962. He is a well known appraiser of antiques, books, fine arts, stamps, and coins. He is a founding member of the Massachusetts Suburban Antique Dealers Association, a member of the American Numismatic Association, and the American Philatelic Society. He has also been President of the Franklin Historical Society since 1985.

  Johnston is also a well known lecturer whose topics cover a wide range of social history, antiques, coins, stamps, and the fine arts, as well as, politics and political and military history.