1804 Plain 4 Proof

The 1804 Plain 4 proof eagle is one of the most storied coins in American numismatics, and the date on its obverse tells only half the story. The Philadelphia Mint actually struck these pieces in 1834 and 1835 for diplomatic presentation sets ordered under President Andrew Jackson and prepared with help from Edmund Roberts, his special agent to Asian courts. Each set carried every U.S. denomination through the silver dollar, all dated 1804, the last year a regular silver dollar or eagle had been issued. The most famous of the surviving sets reached King Phra Nang Klao (Rama III) of Siam in 1836, which is why this issue is forever linked to the King of Siam name. To prepare the date, Mint workmen used a Plain 4 punch borrowed from the 1834 half dollar logotype set, producing a 4 with no crosslet. That single feature separates this proof from the Crosslet 4 circulation strikes that left Philadelphia three decades earlier.

Four coins are believed to have been struck and only three can be traced today. The Bass specimen carries a pedigree running through Lorin Parmelee, William Woodin, and Louis Eliasberg before Harry Bass acquired it in 1982. A second example remains in the King of Siam set, which Goldberg sold in 2005 for $8.5 million and which now sits in the Tyrant Collection. The third is the Simpson coin, graded PCGS PR65+ Deep Cameo and the finest known by a clear margin; the fourth piece is untraced. Authentication rests first on the Plain 4 numeral, then on proof surface qualities of 1830s Mint Cabinet work: deep mirror reflectivity, squared rims, and crisp die polish from prepared dies and slow planchet feeding. Weight should sit near 17.50 grams on the early 0.9167 fine standard. Because the roster has been documented continuously since the 1830s, provenance is effectively the final test.

Today this issue belongs to a tier of coins that change hands once a generation. The Simpson PR65+ Deep Cameo realized $5.28 million at Heritage in January 2021, and the King of Siam set has not returned to market since 2005. For most collectors the coin lives in auction catalogs and museum loans, not on any want list, yet it remains a touchstone for the Draped Bust gold series. For background, see our Draped Bust Eagle series history.