By CoinWeek ….
GreatCollections is offering collectors the rare opportunity to own one of the finest 1883 Hawaiian-issue silver dollars. Graded MS68 by PCGS and approved by CAC, it is the single finest at that company; NGC also reports one example at MS68 with none finer.
The 1883 Hawaiian Dollar is part of the coinage struck by the United States Mint in San Francisco for the Kingdom of Hawaii. Designed by Chief Engraver Charles Barber, the obverse features King Kalākaua I, the next-to-last monarch of Hawaii. Kalākaua made a serious attempt to establish Hawaiian coinage after a notable failure almost 40 years before. He set the new coins to the same weight and fineness standards as U.S. coinage, and used the same denominations.
The scarcity of the 1883 Hawaiian Dollar is the result of the intertwined history of our two nations. The Mint struck 500,000 dollars for Hawaii but most of this mintage was melted down after the United States annexed the country. Just over 46,000 examples survived.
The single-finest example currently being offered by GreatCollections is part of the Gerald Forsythe Collection of Hawaiian Issues. It was sold for $192,000 as part of the Estate of Samuel Mills Damon in March 2006; “S.M. Damon” can be found on the PCGS label.
At the time of writing, the highest of five bids on this top pop 1883 Hawaii Silver Dollar is $200,000.
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To search through GreatCollection’s archive of over 600,000 certified coins and notes the company has sold over the past eight years, please visit the GreatCollections Auction Archives.
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