Product Description

This book offers an in-depth chronological survey of every dollar minted in the United States, coin-by-coin collecting tips and insights, and a thoughtful review and history for each dollar type.

From the commonly collected Morgan dollar and the ultra rare early dollar of 1794 to the Sacagawea 'golden' dollars, this book covers it all! A year-by-year analysis provides current pricing, mintage figures, estimated surviving specimens, and prices realized at auction. Now with over 200 full size color images, this book is an indispensable asset for every coin collector.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #265251 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 410 pages

Review
The book Now let's get to the book. It's a fairly hefty tome, with 410 glossy pages, most of which have detailed color images of all kinds of silver dollars. Bowers starts off with a friendly introduction where he explains his approach in writing this book, calling it the Fireside Chat format. He writes as if you had asked the following question. "I am interested in coin collecting; please tell me about silver dollars, why you think they are interesting, and why I should collect them." What follows is his response. Chapter 1 - Getting Acquainted We begin with a brief overview of the history of silver dollars, and Bower covers a lot of ground. He touches on the history of silver dollars, the universal rarity scale, grading and certification. He ends with a section he calls the "I like it test" where he tells of an experience he had. Skilled coin graders (including him) were not able to correctly grade a group of slabbed $20 St. Gaudens graded MS-63 to MS-67. The person who came the closest to guessing all the grades was not even a grader herself, but a member of their auction department who asked to participate out of curiosity. He uses this story to illustrate that we should primarily collect coins we like, and not be too concerned about the certified grade of the coin. The grade has a tendency to vary depending on who you ask. Chapter 2 - Early Silver Dollars We now enter the realm of early silver dollars where he discusses the early minting processes and then goes through a detailed review of each year of the dollars. Most of the dates are accompanied by a high-quality color photo of the coin, which helps to identify the differing features and varieties. Chapter 3 - The Famous 1804 Dollar This is the big kahuna of dollars. Only 15 specimens are known to exist. To give you an idea of just how big it is, one of them sold for over $4 million in 1999. In this section he discusses the reason for the coin's rarity as well as the details of the known specimens and their history. Chapter 4 - Gobrecht Dollars The Gobrecht dollar is one of the rarest and shortest-lived major silver dollar type. There are only a few pages with just two photos to illustrate the coin. He discusses the history and a few varieties and that's about it. Chapters 5 - 10 These chapters cover Liberty Seated, Morgan, Peace, Eisenhower, Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea Dollars and form the meat of the book (Morgans especially). It's filled with details about each coin, including the legislation that enabled the coin to be produced, the designer of the obverse and reverse, weight and composition, business strike mintage, estimated quantity melted, estimated population by grade, characteristics of striking, known hoards of mint state coins, proof mintage, estimated population, varieties and a general commentary. Each date has its own color photo and a price table for the different grades. This same layout is used for each series and serves as a deep reference for all the dollar coins. Chapter 11 - Trade Dollars Now we reach the second half of the book that covers trade dollars. These are a lesser-known dollar, and he admits a preference for them. He explains how they came to be and how they were used to trade with China, then discusses the different types that exist. He then follows the same pattern used previously to identify characteristics of individual dates in the series. Chapter 12 - Silver "Eagle" Dollars This last chapter is a mere 2 ¼ pages, providing an explanation of the Silver Eagle, followed by a table with dates and prices. Summary I echo the oft-repeated adage to, "buy the book before the coin" with regards to collecting silver dollars. For less than the price of a nice Morgan Dollar, you can get this book to gain a wealth of knowledge about the rarity, value, nuances and varieties of silver dollars. --Coincollector.org, Dan Hersam, Editor

From the Publisher
At only $19.95, this book is a must for every coin collector! Enjoy this latest edition complete with a new chapter on Sacagawea dollars and color images for every coin!

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The first silver dollar, 1794, was of limited mintage. It is believed that just 1,758 were made. All of these were rather poorly struck, as the Mint did not have a suitable press for producing large-diameter heavy coins, a situation that was rectified by new equipment in the spring of 1795.

Dollars dated 1794 are rarities today, and even a well-worn specimen will bring thousands of dollars. The design is what collectors know as the Flowing Hair obverse and Small Eagle reverse.

The obverse depicts the head of Miss Liberty facing right, with hair flowing behind. The reverse shows a "small" and rather delicate eagle perched on a rock, surrounded by a wreath. This same style was continued throughout most of 1795.

The next design type is known as the Draped Bust obverse, Small Eagle reverse, except that the "small eagle" on the reverse is different from that used in 1794-1795 and is, in fact, a bit larger and now perches on a cloud (if, indeed, this is possible). The obverse depicts Miss Liberty with Draped Bust or bosom, as designed by noted artist Gilbert Stuart. You may remember him for his unfinished portrait of George Washington, copies of which hang in many schoolrooms.

Dollars of the new Draped Bust, Small Eagle type were produced in late 1795, all of 1796 and 1797, and early 1798. Those dated 1798 are scarcer than the others.

Customer Reviews

Money Saver
The book payed for itself within one week after I received it. Great information and very accurate. I recommend it to anyone interested in coins.

Not So Impressed
I purchased this book because my mom left me about 300 silver dollars. I had no idea if they were worth anything so I purchased this book to help me try and figure things out.

The book is written in such a way that if you're not a collector, it is difficult to follow. I have since found free web sites that give far better information that is easier to understand.

As far as dealing with this seller I had no problems at all. He shipped the book on a timely bases, and it arrived in good condition. Everything was as expected. I would most definitely do business with the seller again.