Preface

The United States Silver Dollar provided the subject for the ninth annual Coinage of the Americas Conference sponsored by the American Numismatic Society. Since its inception, this program has enjoyed the enthusiastic support of the Society's governing Council as a forum for the dissemination of emerging research in the coinage and currency of North and South America.

The purpose of these conferences is to facilitate the exchange of information. Toward this end, experts in the field are invited to present papers, collectors are invited to exhibit, and notice of the conference is circulated widely to encourage attendance by all interested in the topic. The Society also mounts an exhibition from its holdings and invites registrants to come to know the Society's collections and library better during the days of the conference.

A special exhibit on the history of the silver dollar was put together by Modern Curator John M. Kleeberg and Registrar Katharina Eldada. The exhibit showed the silver dollar from the standing archduke thaler of Archduke Sigismund of the Tirol to the present day, including silver crowns struck by the United States Mint for other countries. The United States Mint also participated, exhibiting their modern commemorative issues of silver dollars.