1900 Lesher Dollar - HK-790, Bank Type

Coin Details

Description

This 1900 Lesher piece (HK-790, Zerbe-4) is the bank type, which promises merchandise or cash at any bank below the mining landscape. Joseph W. Lesher (1838-1918), a mine owner of Victor, Colorado, who had backed William Jennings Bryan's free silver campaigns, issued numbered eight-sided silver pieces in 1900 and 1901. He called them referendum souvenirs: holders were free to accept or refuse them, and the octagonal shape kept them apart from federal coinage (Collectors Universe essay, 2017). They are 950 thousandths silver, the rest copper (same essay; APMEX, search). Collectors number them by Hibler-Kappen's so-called dollar catalogue (HK) and by Farran Zerbe's list (Z), as NGC does. The 1900 pieces are 35 mm across and weigh 480 grains, one troy ounce (Collectors Universe essay). The essay dates these pieces to late 1900; some writers say the government took the dies, others that Lesher stopped because a promise of payment at a bank could bring trouble with the law. Catalogue numbers: HK-790, Zerbe-4. PCGS number 19003.

Cross References

HK-790; Zerbe-4