The United States has minted dollar coins in many different materials including gold, silver and base metal. The first batch of coins minted in the United States was of silver dollar coins. The minting took place in 1794.

The term silver dollar is a general name given to any coin made from silver that is minted in the US. In actual fact the face value of the coin does not have to be one dollar.

Conversely, there are some people who hold firm to the idea that only those coins minted with a face value of one dollar can be termed as silver dollars, even though in actual fact those coins are worth a lot more than that in modern times.

The 1804 coin was actually a result of a book keeping error but over the years it has established quite a reputation. The 1804 silver dollar coin is now the undisputed king of all silver dollar coins from the US. This coin was actually struck in 1804 but bears the date of 1803.

Due to its initial popularity the 1804 silver dollar remained in circulation for many years and was actually reproduced some 30 years later. At this time the US had just begun its ascendancy as an international player with diplomatic relations with other countries all over the world. This coin was often given as an official gift to visiting dignitaries.

Today 1804 silver dollars are very hard to come by. In fact most estimates say there are only around twenty or so in the world. If you did by some chance happen to find one of these coins in the attic you could easily get more than two million dollars for it.

1840 saw the introduction of another set of silver coins that came to be known as the seated liberty dollar. This issue is relatively more common than its 1804 predecessor with more coins in circulation, although it st4eadily lost ground to newer coin issues with the passage of time.

Its important to remember that at this time one dollar was a lot of money and the silver used to make the actual coin cost less than one dollar. Sooner or later however all this changed and it got to the point where the silver content was actually worth more than the coin itself.

For a period of time silver dollars became a popular medium of exchange in the far east until a brief spell in the 1870′s when the prices of silver dropped again that the silver dollar came back into domestic use.

This unique silver trade dollar coin was actually produced in response to the trade coins of other Western powers. Foremost amongst the competitors were Great Britain, France, Mexico and Spain.

The Us silver dollar trade coin was minted with a higher and more pure content of silver than previous coins. This is because it came into being when silver coins were the primary medium of international exchange and there was a great deal of competition in this regard.

The vast majority of trade dollars made their way into Asia during the initial years of their minting. They were highly successful in meeting their objectives.

These dollar coins were never circulated inside the United States. However they did have a face value of $5 in the market.

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