I was writing up a story on the sale of the 1794 dollar and came across a reference to Hoagy Carmichael having once owned the coin. In turn this led me to a NY Times report of yesteryear. Editor Ed was most amused when I pointed out his by-line.

The late Hoagy Carmichael, one of America's best known songwriters, also was a first-class coin collector. That fact will be dramatized next month when his fine collection is sold at auction in Los Angeles. Mr. Carmichael's coins figure to bring upwards of a half million dollars.

Also related to the 1794 sale, the Handbook of Texas, produced by the Texas State Historical Association, refers to Amon G Carter Jr as having helped found the "International Paper Money Society." Have any E-Sylum readers ever heard of it? Or is the Handbook a little confused? See CARTER, AMON GARY, JR. (1919–1982) (www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/CC/fcaaj.html)

I had the pleasure of closely examining the Neil-Carter-Terranova -Milas/Browder-Lustig-Contursi 1794 dollar back when it was for sale at Ed Milas' ANA bourse table for $375,000 perhaps three decades ago. I understand it did sell at that show and that co-owner Marv Browder was unhappy it sold and wanted to buy it back he was so enamored of the coin. I don't blame him! But, I don't know where the tale started that this was the 1st silver dollar struck at the US Mint and was struck for presentation or specimen purposes.

Perhaps it started with B. Max Mehl's often overblown cataloguing descriptions. But the coin's planchet is heavily and prominently adjusted to the point where a significant amount of the reverse peripheral inscription is very weak and obscured. There are a number of high grade 1794 dollars (AU and better) that have considerably fewer adjustment marks and much stronger reverse legends although admittedly not the original toning and prooflike surfaces of this now-Logies /"Cardinal" specimen.

It's a matter of taste and aesthetics which 1794 dollar is "the best" . There are 3-4 Mint state contenders. But it is highly unlikely the Mintmaster would have intended to strike such a heavily file-adjusted coin as an example of the first dollar, much less one for diplomatic or Congressional presentation, as an example of the early Mint's "best work".

Funny thing about that 1794 dollar. Contursi wanted me to state in writing that, in my opinion, it was the first dollar struck. I told him I didn't do theology, and there the matter stopped.

Every time I see a graph like the one by David Ganz describing the sales prices of the Neil-Carter-Contursi 1794 dollar in today's e-Sylum, the scientist in me goes ballistic. Everything about this graph is presented in a manner so misleading that it reminds me of the old book, "How to Lie with Statistics".

The spaces between the dates are equal, but the time intervals between them are very unequal, and the vertical axis is linear, but it should be logarithmic, since doubling the value from $1 to $2 over time period X gives the same rate of return as doubling from $1M to $2M over the same time period. When plotted that way, the data points plot as an amazingly straight line.

This shows that since 1947, the rate of return on investment of this coin has been constant. The one sale where the price dropped slightly does not change that fact. This graph could easily be extrapolated to the future to predict when the coin will sell for $10M or even $100M or $1B, but I will leave such speculation to others!