1897 HK-835, Bickford Dollar

Coin Details

Auction Record

Description

"Heal All Differences Between Gold & Silver Men," promises a circling line on Bickford's 1897 pattern, and the next adds that it would settle all financial questions. HK-835 combines his mound-type obverse, with "Gold / and / Silver" heaped in place of the five dashes of HK-833, and the eight-link reverse that converts the dollar into sterling, francs, kronen, gulden, marks, guilders, roubles and yen. It is aluminum with brass center, 28 mm; the bronze-centered version is HK-834. Bickford's argument for the scheme was practical: recoining and wastage on foreign coin coming into the country ran to about half a million dollars a year. Henry R. Linderman of the Mint had backed the idea in the 1870s, but Congress let it lapse, and Bickford's privately issued pieces followed.

Cross References

HK-835; PCGS #643573