1908 HK-810, T. L. Elder Dollar

Coin Details

Auction Record

$630 MS62 03-02-2020 Kagin's

Description

Cataloged as HK-810, this so-called dollar was produced by Thomas Lindsay Elder (1874-1948), who designed or delineated 104 tokens and medals during his career, making him America's most prolific private medal issuer of the period. Thomas K. DeLorey's comprehensive 1980 article 'Thomas L. Elder, A Catalogue of his Tokens and Medals,' published in The Numismatist, established the definitive numbering system (DeLorey-1 through DeLorey-104+) and won both the Heath Literary Award and the Wayte and Olga Raymond Memorial Literary Award in 1981. Elder published through the Elder Monthly (1906-1907), The Elder Magazine (1910-1911), and the Elder Rare Coin Book (1934). He died on May 11, 1948, at Travelers Rest, South Carolina. Thomas Lindsay Elder (1874-1948) was born in Dayton, Pennsylvania, attended the Park Institute in Allegheny and Beaver College, and worked as a court stenographer and telegrapher before settling in New York City. He opened his dealership at 32 East 23rd Street in May 1904 (later moving to 8-10 West 37th Street), began collecting coins at age 13, joined the American Numismatic Association in 1899, and co-founded the New York Numismatic Club in 1908. Elder conducted 292 auction sales between 1903 and 1940, establishing himself as one of the most prolific American numismatic catalogers of his era. So-called dollars acquired their name because they are not true dollar coins but rather privately issued medals that approximate the size and weight of U.S. silver dollars. The collecting specialty emerged in the early 20th century and was formalized by the Hibler-Kappen catalog, which organized hundreds of diverse pieces — from exposition medals to political tokens to private monetary experiments — into a coherent collecting framework.

Rarity Notes

Thomas Elder numismatic so-called dollars from the HK-798 to HK-819 range survive in varying quantities. Silver examples are the scarcest composition. The lettered variants (a, b, c suffixes) are generally scarcer than the primary types. Elder's pieces are actively collected both as so-called dollars and as examples of early 20th-century American numismatic entrepreneurship.

Cross References

HK-810; PCGS #643540