1 Dollar "Draped Bust Dollar" · “Draped Bust Dollar”

The Draped Bust Dollar: the young republic's silver, and its most famous coin

In 1834, the U.S. Mint struck a silver dollar and stamped it 1804 — a year in which it had made no dollars at all. That backdated coin became the rarest and most coveted object in American numismatics. But the story starts a decade earlier, with a young mint trying to give the dollar a face worthy of a new nation.