A PR62-graded example of the famous 1804 silver dollar is set to excite bidders as the star lot in Heritage Auctions' August 8-10 US Coins Signature Auction in Rosemont, Illinois.
 The 1804 silver dollar were actually minted in the 1830s as part of special proof sets produced for Asian dignitaries |
The coin is currently selling at $220,000, but could reach as much as $3.7m - the price achieved by another PR62-graded example in 2008 at Heritage.
Prior to the 2008 sale, another example had not been seen at auction since 2000.
The 1804 dollar is extremely rare, having been produced in a very limited production in the 1830s and 1860s.
The United States Mint records that 19,750 silver dollars were struck in 1804. However, all of these were minted from the old dies used for the 1803 minting, and therefore still bear the previous year's date.
Silver dollars bearing the 1804 date did not appear until 1834, when the US Department of State created a set of coins to present to Asian rulers.
The sets were to include two specimens of each kind of coin still in use, so mint employees struck a few examples to cater for the demand. There are just eight of these Class 1 "originals" known to exist, with three of those housed in institutional collections.
 The record-holding Watters-Childs specimen is one of the most valuable of all US coins |
The example at auction originates from the Greensboro Collection, a remarkable amassment of proof coins that Heritage has been involved in the sale of since October 2012.
The highest-graded example of the 1804 dollar is the Watters-Childs specimen at PR-68, which sold for $4.1m in 1999 to set the record for a coin of its type. It is believed to have originated from the Sultan of Muscat's proof set.
Heritage's July 11-14 US Coins Signature Auction was led by a 1921 example of the Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle, which made $117,500.
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