The sole finest 1804 Draped Bust silver dollar sold for $7.68 million in the Stack’s Bowers Galleries August 2021 ANA Auction, setting a new auction record as the fifth most valuable United States coin ever sold. Offered in the firm’s Rarities Night session on Tuesday, August 17, the sale of this 1804 Draped Bust dollar will be remembered as a milestone in United States numismatics.
Graded Proof-68 by PCGS, this 1804 Class I Original dollar is the single finest example of this famous issue, known as the “King of American Coins.” The provenance of this specimen began when it was delivered in 1835 as a diplomatic gift to the Sultan of Muscat, and it has since resided in only four private numismatic collections, those of Charles A. Watters, Virgil M. Brand, the Childs family, and the Pogue family. Following its mysterious appearance in a London auction in 1917, this specimen had sold at auction only once, in Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ 1999 sale, when the Pogue family acquired it for the then world-record price of $4.14 million.
With an astounding $7.68 million realized in the Stack’s Bowers Galleries August sale, the Childs-Pogue specimen is once again the most valuable example of the 1804 dollar. It also represents the second most valuable U.S. silver dollar of any design, ranking behind only the 1794 Flowing Hair dollar sold by Stack’s Bowers Galleries in their 2013 sale.
For more information on Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ record-setting sale of the Childs-Pogue 1804 dollar or to consign your numismatic treasures to a future auction, contact the firm at 800-458-4646 or email info@StacksBowers.com.
