1853 HK-7a, Crystal Palace-Type 2A Dollar

Coin Details

Description

Lovett reused the flag reverse of his Police piece for a second Crystal Palace design, the Industry-All Nations dollar, and HK-7a is its white metal striking at 38 mm. Here the obverse building carries a full caption, naming the New York Crystal Palace for the exhibition above and "of the Industry of All Nations" below, and a microscopic "G.H. Lovett, N.Y." sits under the edifice. The reverse, shared with the silver HK-7, rings a twelve-star shield and rays with ten flags and the names of thirty countries. The 1853 building copied London's Crystal Palace on a smaller plan, about 200,000 square feet against 750,000, and critics mocked it as an overgrown greenhouse. Among its machinery displays was the first passenger elevator, but the venture lost money, P. T. Barnum could not save it as president, and fire destroyed the structure on October 5, 1858.

Cross References

HK-7a; PCGS #642012; NGC #851789