1900 Lesher or Referendum Dollar. Bumstead Type, First Reverse. HK-788, Zerbe-2. Rarity-5. Silver. No. 585. AU-50 (NGC)
A richly original steel-gray example with intermingled deep olive and lighter silver-mauve. Well defined overall with plenty of sharpness remaining. The individual number 585 neatly impressed at the base of the obverse. The following is from the December 1900 issue of monthly bankers periodical "Dicker man's United States Treasury Counterfeit Detector 'REFERENDUM' Dollars." -- A Victor, Col., dispatch to the Denver Evening Post says: "A unique enterprise has been established in Victor by Joseph Lesher, a Colorado pioneer and silver mine owner. He has procured a die, laid in a supply of silver bullion, and manufactured several silver coins, each containing one ounce of pure silver. He calls his coins 'referendum' dollars, because they are to be referred to the people for acceptance or rejection. Mr. Lesher proposes to demonstrate that the 'intrinsic value' theory is a delusion and a snare. His silver at the present quotation costs him 65 cents per ounce, the expense of coining is 15 cents -- 80 cents in all, but he values his dollars at $1.25, and intends to keep them above par. Although he is confident that the silver alone is really worth $1.29 an ounce, he admits that other people may be prejudiced: therefore he promises to pay $1.25 in United States money on demand for each 'referendum dollar.'" The exact number of Lesher dollars issued is unknown, and Lesher's own estimate of 3,500 pieces given to Farran Zerbe in a 1913 interview has been called into question in more recent years. Specifically, Adna G. Wilde, Jr.'s exhaustive study of this series led to the conclusion that only 1,869 Lesher dollars of all types were produced. Wilde's estimate on the number of Bumstead pieces distributed is 710, comprised of 210 examples of the First Reverse with scrolls, HK-788, represented here, and 500 of the Second Reverse without scrolls, HK-789. Regarding the survivors, the outstanding reference Forgotten Colorado Silver: Joseph Lesher's Defiant Coins by Robert D. Leonard, Jr., Kenneth L. Hallenbeck and Adna G., Wilde, Jr. estimates that approximately 600 examples of all types are extant, or only about a third of the total number believed to have been issued. The present example is not included in the Adna Wilde Lesher Census published at the lesherdollars.com website.