Heritage Auctions will be offering the 'King of American Coins' as the anchors lot in its Platinum Night event on Friday, Aug. 9, the centerpiece of the company's Aug. 8-10 U.S. Coins Signature® Auction in Rosemont, IL. Currently the bid is at $2,800,000 and could reach the $3.5m before Live Signature Floor Session on Aug 9, 2013.
Only eight coins exist for the Class I 1804 $1 and the Mickley-Hawn-Queller specimen of the 1804 $1 auction by Heritage is graded PR62 by both PCGS and NGC, from The Greensboro Collection, Part IV.
"The Class I 1804 $1 is the undisputed King of American coins," said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auctions, "and it is always an event when one of them shows up for auction. It's the rare chance for a top collector to add their name, or the name of their collection, to a history that will never diminish in importance. It is, in many ways, numismatic immortality for whoever comes out on top, and we expect there will be many vying for that honor."
It is widely believed that the 1804 $1 was not minted until about 1834, when the State Department ordered special sets of the coins struck specifically for diplomatic purposes. Records indicated that several of the Class II and Class III 1804 silver dollars were minted after that. In fact, Mint records from 1804 indicated a delivery figure of 19,570 silver dollars, though it is commonly held in numismatic circles that these were all leftover coins dated 1803.
The U.S. Mint received orders to strike complete sets of proof coinage meant to serve as diplomatic gifts for sovereigns such as the Sultan of Muscat, the King of Siam, and the Emperors of Cochin-China and Japan. While most denominations specified by the Mint Act of 1792 were still in production in 1834 and thus simple to produce as proofs, the silver dollar and gold ten dollar (eagle) had not been struck for many years - since 1804, the Mint's research found. There was just one catch: those silver dollars struck in 1804 were made from carryover obverse dies and did not bear that date. When the Mint struck those silver dollars dated 1804 and a few spares, an inadvertent rarity was created.
You can read more about it here; The 'King of American Coins' Anchors Heritage's Aug. 9 Platinum Offerings In Chicago.
