1 Dollar - George III Pattern (1804)

About the 1804 1 Dollar - George III Pattern

The 1804 1 Dollar - George III Pattern is a collector 4 shillings coin, struck in silver. Reverse design: Royal shield within Garter, crown above dividing date.

It is no longer legal tender, so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

The Bank of England's countermarked Spanish dollars of 1797 and 1804 were widely counterfeited, and the Royal Mint Museum records that the Bank turned to Matthew Boulton's Soho Mint to overstrike its stock of Spanish coins with a new design on steam-powered presses. The design adopted was the Britannia dollar inscribed BANK OF ENGLAND and FIVE SHILLINGS DOLLAR. This piece is one of the designs tried before that choice was made.

Sovereign Rarities describes it as a proposed pattern for the overstrike that was not adopted. Like the issued dollars it was struck over a Spanish colonial 8 reales, and traces of the host coin often show: one example reveals an 1803 Mexico City piece beneath, and Spink recorded another over a Charles IV dollar of 1801. Examples weigh about 26.9 g. No figure for the number struck is recorded.

The obverse carries Conrad Heinrich Küchler's laureate and draped bust of George III facing right, signed .:C.H.K on the truncation, with the legend GEORGIUS III. DEI GRATIA . and a toothed border. Küchler was Boulton's engraver at Soho from 1793 and also cut the cartwheel penny and twopence.

The reverse gives the piece its name. It shows the quartered royal arms with the crowned escutcheon of Hanover, encircled by the Garter and its motto HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE, under a crown that divides the date 1804. The word DOLLAR sits below the Garter and the legend reads BRITANNIARUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR. Sovereign Rarities notes that the shield in Garter matches the design newly introduced on the 1804 half guinea.

Varieties and errors

Catalogues list the type as ESC 182, with obverse die I and reverse die 3; on the obverse the top leaf of the wreath points to the upright of the D of DEI. Spink offered an example with the reverse struck twice, the die turned 180 degrees between the blows. That is a striking fault on one coin, not a separate variety.

Collecting notes

This is a pattern and was never current coin. Check for the C.H.K signature, the Garter reverse with DOLLAR below and the date split by the crown. Visible undertype from the Spanish host is normal and helps confirm the piece was struck at Soho over a real 8 reales. The design the Bank actually issued is the 1804 Bank of England dollar.