Draped Bust n Small Eagle Silver Dollars 1795-1798 Coin Guide

A precocious country during its shaping being, the United States grew swiftly in volume and eminence throughout its first the century as an independent populace. It didn't access adulthood almost as cleansing, however, as the image of Miss Liberty on U. S. Silver change.

When Liberty first appeared on the land's silver coins in 1794 she was childish and chirpy, with her curls flowing freely behind her. Focusing on that mark, collectors submit to these coins as the Flowing Hair class. Nevertheless it didn't take long for this ingenious- looking maiden to make the bursting flower of adulthood: The very next year a new sketch showed her, in the language of currency critic Cornelius Vermeule, as "a buxom Roman matron" having long, elegant fleece neatly together back with a ribbon and a bow and ample cleavage obvious above a fold of drapery.

This rotund-figured portrayal has come to be known as the Draped Bust invent, and it holds a significant distinction: It appears on the facade of the 1804 silver dough, one of the most notorious and most important U.S. coin rarities.

For a time, the Draped Bust likeness graced all five silver coins then being issued: the dough, half cash, quarter, dime and the dime. The money got the spring on all the others, however, receiving this fabricate partway through production in 1795. It didn't make its debut on the other four coins pending 1796.

Selection of the cash as the new originate's first cabinet underscored the dominance of that coin. The dough was the cornerstone of the financial routine devised by the Founding Fathers, and the one-money coin was not only the prime silver number but, in the survey of officials overseeing the Mint, the most prestigious as well as most important. They had made that earn in 1794 when they chose to have dollars struck before something also at the outset of silver penny, only then giving the go-onward for the minor silver pieces.

Replacement of the midstream-lived Flowing Hair project coincided with a change in leadership at the Mint. David Rittenhouse resigned as the Mint's first director at the end of June 1795, and his successor, Henry William DeSaussure, set out at once to recover the designs of all the denominations, particularly those struck in silver.

Possibly at the urging of President George Washington, DeSaussure engaged portraitist Gilbert Stuart to devise a new target for the silver coins. Stuart organized a diagram of the Draped Bust celebrity, reportedly basing the likeness on Philadelphia socialite Ann Willing Bingham, said to be the most stunning lady of her time. This sketch was translated to plaster by dancer John Eckstein of Providence, Rhode Island, and mint executed the dies Chief Engraver Robert Scot.

Though the Flowing Hair picture of Liberty was retired, the Mint kept the back essentially the same. It skinned a small, naturalistic eagle encircled by a wreath, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA adorned around the border. On the Draped Bust penny, this "Small Eagle" reversal does bare fine refinements: The eagle seems more lissom, for example, and it's balanced ahead a cloud instead of an astound (as had been the instance on the Flowing Hair money). In addition, the wreath has been adapted: The before laurel brushwood have given way to kindling of palm and emerald. LIBERTY and the court are the only inscriptions on the face. Lettering on the perimeter proclaims the receipt of cost: HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT, with decorations separating the words.

The intact first-year production of Draped Bust silver dollars took place in the last two weeks of October, 1795 and totaled a modest 42,738 pieces. That's barely one-fourth the mintage of 1795 Flowing Hair dollars; some 160,000 of those had been struck formerly. Nonetheless, both types historically have commanded comparable premiums. The Flowing Hair money profited from it's varied grab as a mode coin: That sequence was made for only two being, and the 1794 is a chief find, so the 1795 is the only realistic decision for most buyers.

The Draped Bust/Small Eagle dough didn't last much longer. It remained in production for only four being, from 1795 to 1798, before the small eagle was replaced by a large, heraldic eagle. The Draped Bust studied retained its blackhead on the facade awaiting production of dollars was perched in 1804 because of onerous melting. When dollar coinage resumed in 1836, the facade weary a new Seated Liberty portrait.

Only about 450,000 Draped Bust/Small Eagle dollars were issued in the four living mutual, virtually three fourths of them in 1798. Noting scholar Walter Breen estimated that just 3 percent survive. The low crux came in 1797, when a meager 7,776 were bent. The rarest array is the 1797 dollar with 9 stars to Liberty's left, 7 to her right and small script in the quash legend. The low production facts are understandable, given the truth that during the 1790s a dollar represented a full day's pay for some Americans-and a living wage, at that.

Although the string is small, Draped Bust/Small Eagle dollars come in more than a dozen foremost varieties. Some of these distinctions are based on the dimension of the date and the inscriptions. Most of the varieties, however, are fixed to the number of stars on the frontage and the way they are agreed. There were 15 stars in the first two years, representing the number of states in the Union at the time. With Tennessee's admission, the number rose to 16 in 1797. Then, in 1798, it dropped back to 15 (apparently because old dies were being used) before finish up at 13 for the 13 primary colonies.

The collecting of this string by varieties took a major leap forward with the publication in 1950 of a citation book by Milford H. Bolender. Using his own specialized collection of these coins as a foundation, Bolender described and illustrated each category known to him. After vacant through some editions, his book was extensively revised by Jules Reiver in 1998. Another note by Q. David Bowers, with the assistance of Mark Borckardt, was published in 1993, correcting and updating the Bolender book and assigning a new numbering structure. Thus, the varieties of these dollars are identified by both Bolender (B) figures or Bowers/ Borckardt (BB) facts.

Dollars of this capture are scarce and vastly collectible even in lesser circulated grades and are atypical in mint proviso. Points to buttress for grind are the hair above Liberty's temple and the emblem of the eagle's breast.

Although the series is abruptly, it is commonly serene by brand only because each component is so scarce. Proofs of these coins weren't struck, but a few presentation pieces spectacle prooflike surfaces.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 39-40 millimeters Weight: 26.96 grams Composition: .8924 silver.1076 copper Edge: Lettered Net Weight: .77344 ounce downright silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States, A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers & Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Reiver, Jules, The United States Early Silver Dollars 1794 to 1804, Krause Publications, Iola, WI, 1998. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 1966. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Trade Dollar 1875

Federal officials faced a dilemma in the being after the Civil War. The Comstock Lode and other Western mines were producing large quantities of silver, but the government could use only limited amounts of it in currency. This seems puzzling in retrospect, for silver coins were infrequent in circulation (a lingering legacy of wartime billboard), and Americans presumably would have welcomed main infusions of silver coins. Nevertheless Mint officials feared that new silver coins would be subjected to notice as well, since the marketplace was sopping with paper money, with fractional currency natural of wartime basic. People would have been only too glad to replace these notes, which brought minus than plump face help, for precious-metal currency.

For a time, the miners found outlets for their silver, regularly in change form, in exotic markets. Canada, Latin America and Europe all absorbed significant quantities during the 1860s. Nevertheless then, for many reasons these markets became glutted. In Europe, for example, Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck established a gold model for Germany after unifying the country in 1871 and speedily dumped gigantic amounts of silver on the international promote.

For the miners and their potent allies in Washington these developments were doubly disturbing: Not only was it hard to sell their silver, but the promote treasure was steadily declining. Initially, change did suggest one outflow valve: Under a long- ranking law, silver could be deposited with the Mint for conversion into silver coins, for which it could then be exchanged. Having no other equipped conduit, miners took lead of this one. Invariably, they chose silver dollars, the one denomination that hadn't been changed when silver coins were condensed in mass (and precious-metal subject) in 1853. As a manage significance, silver money mintages soared above one million in both 1871 and 1872.

Nevertheless with the Coinage Act of 1873, Congress stopped this loophole by suspending expand production of silver dollars. And that's where the trade buck came in: Flexing their muscle, the mining benefit won liking for this new silver coin-one that would, in scheme at slightest, not only offer an opening for the metal, but also open a full new souk for it in a corner that was already receiving Congressional awareness.

The market in doubt was Asia, particularly China. Some U.S. silver had found its way to that territory previously, but now a plump-fledged violent was planned. The Chinese had shown an absolute preference for silver coins, and up to then the volume of American trade with China had been carried out with Spanish and Mexican dollars. The trade dough's architects set out to replace those rivals by bountiful the new coin a senior silver content. They even had it decorated on the coin: "420 GRAINS, 900 FINE."

At first glance, the trade dough looks much like a recurring silver money. It's the same diameter and about the same mass as its predecessor, the Seated Liberty dough, and its portraiture is similar: a seated female chart representing Liberty on the frontage and a naturalistic eagle on the reversal-designs organized by Mint Chief Engraver William Barber.

In compare to the new trade dough, the uniform U.S. silver dough weighed just 412.5 grains, and the Mexican buck weighed only 416. Nevertheless the architects had miscalculated; still it weighed vaguely less, the Mexican coin had a senior sheerness and therefore enclosed somewhat more innocent silver. The sharp Chinese recognized this and, in many provinces, gave the U.S. coin sharply shrift, favoring the Mexican coin.

That's not to say the trade buck wasn't used. On the opposing, over 27 million went overseas and found their way into Asian retail, many later being sent onto India in trade for opium. Numerous pieces show chop signs-distinctive Chinese symbols-located on them by merchants to attest to their authenticity. Nevertheless treatment of the coins never approached Americans' expectations.

The trade money's prevalent problems occurred not in China but at home. In a last-detailed contract, Congress had made the coin an official tender for domestic payments up to five dollars. In 1876, millions were dumped into circulation in the United States when silver prices plummeted, making them worth substantially more as money than, as metal.

Congress swiftly revoked their official-tender status (the only time this has been done with any U.S. coin), but the seeds of momentous worry had been sown. In the postponed 1870s, employers bought up huge facts of the coins at slightly more than gold meaning (80 to 83 cents apiece) and then put them in pay envelops at face value. Merchants and banks accepted them only at gold value or unwanted them altogether, so the workforce effectively mislaid one sixth to one-fifth of their pay when that pay often amounted to less than $10 a week.

Spurning abroad and despised by many at home, the trade dough rapidly pale into stupor. After 1878, production was hanging excepting for proofs-and even those dwindled to just ten in 1884 and five in 1885.

Like many other "fantasy" coins before them, the 1884 and 1885 pieces were clandestinely struck for Mint chum William Idler and were nameless to the numismatic village pending six pieces from Dealer John sold idler's estate Haseltine in 1908. Notwithstanding their questionable cause, these two dates are viewed as great rarities nowadays.

In all, fewer than 36 million trade dollars were struck during the coin's 13-year existence, plus about 11,000 proofs. Production took place at Philadelphia, Carson City and San Francisco. The rarest sphere smacked is the 1878-CC with a mintage of 97,000, many of which develop to have been melted. All high-grade business strikes of the trade cash are scarce to non-current, leaving proofs to charge most of the order from typeface collectors.

The extraordinary beauty of originally-toned proofs entices many collectors to shot complete evidence runs (without the almost unavailable 1884 and 1885, of course). Indeed, any trade dollar is amply cherished and required in untouched train. Points to rein for show compose Liberty's ear, left knee and breast and the eagle's supervise and left wing.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Designer: William Barber
Weight: 27.22 grams
Net weight: 0.7874 oz wholesome silver
Composition: 0 .900 silver, 0.100 copper
Diameter: 38.1 mm
Edge: reeded
Minted at: Philadelphia, Carson City, San Francisco
Years Minted: 1873 to 1885
Mint blotch: On reversal below eagle and above the 'D' in the word 'dollar.'
Notes: Key meeting 1878CC due to numerous coins being melted and low mintage. Proofs are uncommon too. Many trade dollars have been counterstamped with Chinese 'chop lettering'. These marks typically lessen the coin.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States, A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Willem, John M. The United States Trade Dollar, Whitman Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1965. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 48th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1994.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Flowing Hair Silver Dollars 1794-1795

The money was the cornerstone of the fiscal practice devised by the Founding Fathers for the fledgling United States. More than two existence approved, however, between the time Congress authorized cash currency and the actual production of the first such coin, the Flowing Hair silver dough.

Congress itself was responsible for the break. As part of the vital Mint Act of April 2, 1792, the House and Senate specific that two key Mint officers-the chief coiner and assayer-would have to publish bonding of $10,000 each before they could work with precious metal. The requirement was onerous: It represented more than six period the annual salary of $1,500 each provided for these two officers. Understandably, they had effort gathering it-and, awaiting they did, only copper penny could proceed.

Frustrating by this roadblock in his labors to begin detailed-range money, Mint Director David Rittenhouse appealed for help to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, the Cabinet executive then in custody of the Mint. Jefferson got Congress to decrease the bonds to $5,000 for Chief Coiner Henry Voigt and $1,000 for Assayer Albion Cox; they then put up the money and the Mint was limitless at last to produce the lasting denominations. By then it March of 1794, and the red record had price the Mint a whole production year of precious-metal change: The only coins issued in 1793 had been copper cents and half cents. (Although the Mint was established in 1792 and it struck some coins that year, all are viewed as patterns very than endorsed federal issues.)

Silver coinage started in 1794 with two denominations-the buck and half dough; both were alike in sketch (half dimes of this meeting were coined the next year). The money was deemed the most prestigious, so Mint officials firm to punch that first. Actually, the Mint had gotten a running depart on the new coins: Engraver Robert Scot had been told to arrange designs for them months before the legal scowl was untangled.

Congress had specific that the new coins should hold a target "emblematic of Liberty," and Scot accomplished this with a right-facing likeness of a childish female consider whose beard flowed liberally behind her-thus the descriptive term "Flowing Hair." The word LIBERTY appears above her, with the year below and 15 stars along the sides, symbolizing the number of states in the Union at that time. Scot is said to have intended the flowing coat to imply looseness. A sample 25-cent instance of 1792 served as Scot's exemplary for the facade; this had been planned by Joseph Wright, who died of blonde fever in 1793 after helping quickly as Mint engraver. The money's quash depicts a small, swell-winged eagle floating on an astound and surrounded by laurel twigs. Encircling this, along the border, is the motto UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The dough's "third elevation," the side, carries the inscription HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT, with decorations separating the lexis.

The Flowing Hair dough is faintly larger and heavier than later U.S. cartwheels like the Morgan and Peace dollars. Its authorized sheerness differs, too, but its actual delicacy doesn't, because some probing events at the Mint. Congress had specific a curious alloy of 1485/1664 silver and 179/1664 copper, for thinness of .8924+. Nevertheless Assayer Cox complained that this was too trying to achieve and, what's more, that silver coins would deed black in normal use save they were at least .900 select. He prevailed on Rittenhouse to let him use that elevated pennant, even however Congress hadn't penalized it, creating an incredible municipal where the Mint was actually breech the law of the land. This led to substantial losses for people who deposited silver gold with the Mint and took silver dollars in return, for they were being mandatory to deliver more silver per coin than the law mandatory. Eventually, some sought and obtained reimbursement.

It's supposed that the Mint struck a overall of 2,000 silver dollars in 1794, all from a distinct couple of dies. Evidently, some were abandoned as being excessively weak and may have finished up being used as coin blanks the next year or just being melted. The accepted net mintage is 1,758, with estimates of about 120-130 survivors in all grades. The whole production occurred on an unmarried day, October 15, and Voight stored many of the coins in the Mint's vaults, generous them to Rittenhouse the following May. The Director existing a few of the dollars to VIPs as souvenirs and made a heart of spending some (or exchanging them for Spanish dollars) to get the coins before the free. Rittenhouse never distributed all the coins, however, resigning due to without shape in June of 1795. This set the step for a very interesting piece of numismatic memoirs,

Almost 170 being later, in 1964, a small box of "peculiar" coins was consigned to a Christies mart in London by the family of British nobleman Major Sir Roland Denys Guy Winn, M.C., Fourth Baron St. Oswald. The box enclosed about $10 in face help of new U.S. coins, square each 1794 or 1795. Most notable of these pieces were two uncirculated 1794 dollars which brought $11,400 each at the vending. When the coins returned to the United States, the excitement generated among American collectors began to take on a life of its own. A chronicle took burrow that had one of Lord St. Oswald's ancestors itinerant to Philadelphia in 1795 and receiving the coins soon from Henry DeSaussure, Rittenhouse's successor as Mint Director. While this account makes fascinating reading and has been accepted as fact for over thirty time, latest inquiries has naked that it's based fully on guess. No family minutes or accounts fund the proposition of a trip to the United States by a St. Oswald ancestor; in fact, they lean to refute it. We don't know for certain how the coins were obtained or by whom-only that they were in the St. Oswald family's possession in 1964. Perhaps an impending numismatic researcher will be able to loosen this mystery.

Farther buck production was floating awaiting a new lobby-competent of imparting fuller, stronger strikes-could be installed. It didn't resume awaiting early May of 1795, and from then through mid-October the new tackle cranked out more than 160,000 Flowing Hair dollars dated 1795. In October, the drawing gave way to a new Draped Bust cash, making the Flowing Hair dollar a two-year capture coin.

Despite its brevity, the Flowing Hair dollar cycle is broadly calm by form (most collectors selecting the 1795 spring, because it is so much more copious than 1794). Some of the 1795 dollars have two leaves below each wing of the eagle, while others have three. Both kinds are similarly free, however. There are no records of proofs for the year, but some 1795 dollars are professed to be "specimen" strikes. Mint state pieces of both dates are very unusual. Points to first show wear are the cheek, shoulder and tresses above Liberty's temple and the eagle's breast, proceed and wing-tops.

Flowing Hair dollars are coveted collectibles, not only because of their great curiosity but also because they possess such an athletic relation with the birth of both the realm and U.S. coinage. Silver dollars are enormously accepted, so this fleeting, small cycle indeed was the outset of something big.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 39-40 millimeters Weight: 26.96 grams Composition: .8924 silver.1076 copper Edge: Lettered Net Weight: .77344 degree authentic silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States, A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Hodder, Michael J. "Who was Major the Lord St. Oswald?," The Asylum, Fall, 1994. Reiver, Jules, The United States Early Silver Dollars 1794 to 1804, Krause Publications, Iola, WI, 1998. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co., New York, 1966. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.