When the news broke in 2025 that the 16th example of an 1804 Draped Bust Dollar had emerged from the cabinet of the James A. Stack, Sr. Collection, I was astonished, like so many others reading this article and who had also long understood there to be 15 specimens of the “King of American Coins.” I could even spiel off the numbers by breakdown of strike category – eight examples of the Class I, one Class II, and six Class III. Then that 1804 Draped Bust Dollar from the James A. Stack, Sr. Collection changed the whole equation. It was graded PR65 by PCGS as the seventh Class III example of the 1804 Dollar and sold by Stack’s Bowers Galleries for a whopping $6 million (including 20% buyer’s fee) on December 9, 2025 as the finest example of its class.
“We are absolutely thrilled to have graded what becomes the 16th-known 1804 Draped Bust Dollar,” said PCGS President Stephanie Sabin in the days after the ultra-rarity journeyed through the PCGS Grading Room. “For generations, collectors have known of only 15 examples of the 1804 Dollar, including six Class III examples. The news of a 16th specimen stunned the numismatic world and shines a new light on the grandeur and mystique of what many call ‘the King of American coins.’”
Stack’s Bowers Galleries Executive Vice President Vicken Yegparian had this to say about the greatness of the previously unpublished 1804 Dollar and the significance of other such rarities that somehow managed to stay under the radar for decades: “I’m ecstatic that current generations will get a taste of the greatness of the James A. Stack, Sr. Collection. As if an 1804 Class III silver dollar that had evaded detection by several generations of the best researchers was not enough, there is also a stellar array of expectation-busting coins behind it. This tranche of coins from the Stack Collection shows that there are still ground-breaking discoveries to be made in numismatics.”
Indeed, the revelation of the sixteenth 1804 Draped Bust Dollar sparked excitement in me, someone who relishes the thought that hidden treasures may be waiting just around the next corner. Think about it… If there’s a 16th specimen, who’s to say there aren’t others out there? What about other coins whose published population figures have long been regarded as gospel? This does not suggest that the next relic posing as an 1804 Dollar coin will be the real McCoy – there are thousands of times more replicas and fakes than there are genuine 1804 Draped Bust Dollars... And that’s just one of many reasons PCGS exists – to weed out counterfeits and help protect you from fakes. But does that mean you may have the chance of discovering a 17th genuine specimen?
Suddenly, the chance of making a headline-breaking numismatic discovery seems all the more real, doesn’t it?