<P> The 1804 dollar is one of the rarest and most famous and popular coins in the world . Its creation was the result of a simple bookkeeping error, but its status as the king of coins has been established for nearly a century and a half . The silver dollars reported by the mint as being struck in 1804 were actually dated 1803 . (With die steel being very expensive in the early 19th century, dies were used until they were no longer in working condition . This is why many early U.S. coins exhibit all kinds of die cracks, occlusions, cuds, clash marks, and other late state die wear . Nearly every coin the U.S. struck from 1793 to 1825 has an example that was struck in a year other than that which it bears .) No dollars bearing the date 1804 were ever struck in 1804, though this was unknown to mint officials at the time the 1804 dollar came to be . </P> <P> The 1804 silver dollar was actually produced in 1834, when the U.S. Department of State decided to produce a set of U.S. coins to be used as gifts to rulers in Asia in exchange for trade advantages . Since 1804 was the last recorded year of mintage for both the dollar and $10 Eagle, it was decided that the set would contain examples of those coins dated 1804, as well as the other denominations currently being produced . Mint officials, not realizing that the 19,000 + dollars recorded as being produced in 1804 were all dated 1803, proceeded to make new dies dated 1804 . Little did they know the stunning rarity they were creating . Only 15 silver dollars with the date of 1804 are known to exist; in 1999, one of them sold at auction for more than $4 million . There are 8 Class I dollars, struck in 1834 for the aforementioned sets, 1 Class II dollar, struck over an 1857 Swiss Shooting Thaler (and now residing in the U.S. Coin Collection at the Smithsonian Institution), and 6 Class III dollars, struck surreptitiously sometime between 1858 and 1860 to meet collector demand for the coin . </P> <P> Seated Liberty dollars were introduced in 1836 and were minted in lesser quantities than the sparsely minted Gobrecht dollar that preceded it . The dollars were used in general circulation until 1873 . The production of large numbers of U.S. gold coins (First $1 1848 and $20 in 1849) from the new California mines lowered the price of gold, thereby increasing the value of silver . By 1853, the value of a U.S. Silver Dollar contained in gold terms, $1.89 of silver . With the Mint Act of 1853, all U.S. silver coins, except for the U.S. silver dollar and new 3 cent coin, were reduced by 22.9% as of weight with arrows on the date to denote reduction . The U.S. silver dollar was continued to be minted in very small numbers mainly as a foreign trade to the Orient . </P> <P> The international trading partners did not like the fact that U.S. coins were reduced in weight . The use of much more common half dollars became problematic since merchants would have to separate higher value pre-1853 coins from the newer reduced ones . From 1853 onwards, trade with Asia was typically done with Mexican coins that kept their weight and purity in the 19th Century . This ended in 1874 when the price of silver dropped so that a silver dollar has less than $1.00 worth of silver in it (huge amounts of silver coming from the Nevada Comstock Lode mines). By 1876, all silver coins were being used as money and by 1878, gold was at par with all U.S. paper dollars . Beginning in 1878, huge amounts of the Morgan silver dollars were produced but few were used as money . The size was too large to carry on business so Silver Certificates were used instead . The mint made the coins, placed them in their vaults and issued the Silver Certificates instead . This is the reason so many Morgan and Peace dollars can be purchased in AU or UNC condition (near perfect)... they sat in bank / U.S. Treasury vaults most of the time . </P>

When did silver dollars go out of circulation