1794 $1 B-1, BB-1, R.4 -- Altered Surfaces -- PCGS Secure Genuine. XF Details....

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1794 Dollar, Still-Pleasing XF Details
B-1, BB-1, Historic First-Year Issue
The Former Westchester Specimen

1794 $1 B-1, BB-1, R.4 -- Altered Surfaces -- PCGS Secure Genuine. XF Details. We estimate perhaps 140 to 150 1794 Flowing Hair dollars survive in all grades from a reported mintage of 1,758 pieces. Equipped with a screw press best suited for minting half cents, cents, and other coppers, the fledgling Mint somehow managed a production of 5,300 Flowing Hair half dollars and then a brief mintage of silver dollars. While the half dollars were issued primarily for commerce and were at once a staple of the early circulating coinage, the silver dollars had a dual role -- they did circulate, but they were also showpieces to confirm the viability of the federal Mint and the country's burgeoning financial wherewithal.

On the Mint's part, the production of silver dollars did not come easily. Many -- if not most -- pieces had planchet and strike problems of one sort or another. Striking pressure was inadequate for the large coins, unable to fully strike up the design and minimize planchet imperfections and file marks. Die alignment was a problem, causing large portions of the mintage to be weak in the date area and left side of the obverse and reverse. Many coins were rejected outright as unacceptable, and few pieces measured up to the Mint's standard of quality.

The few surviving 1794 dollars each has a story to tell, much of it through the strike and preservation of the individual coins. Yeoman work was done by Jack Collins, who spent a quarter of a century researching and documenting the 1794 dollars. The fine reference by Martin A. Logies, The Flowing Hair Silver Dollars of 1794, provides an invaluable study of every 1794 dollar known at the time of its publication in 2010.

The present coin is listed on page 128 of that reference as the Westchester specimen. It appeared in the 1987 Bowers and Merena auction of The Westchester Collection, then graded XF40/40 (ANACS 10/17/86), there described:

"An attractive specimen of one of America's great numismatic classics, albeit with the usually seen peripheral weakness (at lower left of the obverse and corresponding part of the reverse) and mint-caused adjustment marks. The centers are well struck, especially so, with the hair detail, eye, lips, nose, ear, and other features of Miss Liberty bold. The reverse is as similarly well detailed as the obverse ..."

The coin is currently encased in a PCGS Genuine holder with XF Details, with "Altered Surfaces" the reason (or one of the reasons) it did not receive a numeric grade. There are no overt signs of surface alteration other than a silver-gray patina that is perhaps overly light for a 1794 dollar. Some faint hairlines indicate an old cleaning, but they are barely visible on the coin. Several Mint-related adjustment marks appear at the obverse margins, with strike weakness along the left border and incompleteness at STATES on the reverse. A moderate rim bump at 4 o'clock on the reverse is noted, as are three linear planchet streaks in the right obverse field from star 12 to the neck. Two or three small planchet flaws exist, not unexpected for this early dollar.

The hair definition is strong and Liberty's cheek full and rounded. Likewise, the eagle's wing feathers and tailfeathers are individually sharp, and the eagle's head is well-formed. Now slate-gray in color with some deep-gray accents, the surfaces retain considerable appeal. The few collectors fortunate enough to seek a 1794 dollar will find this a suitable representative of the classic American issue, our nation's first silver dollar coinage.
From The Palos Verdes Collection, Part I.

Coin Index Numbers: (NGC ID# 24WY, Variety PCGS# 39972, Base PCGS# 6851)

Weight: 26.96 grams

Metal: 89.24% Silver, 10.76% Copper

View all of [The Palos Verdes Collection, Part II ]

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