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.
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