Researcher gets opportunity with 1794 $1

Coin World
by Brad Karoleff
Monday October 18, 2004

During the American Numismatic Association convention in August in Pittsburgh, I had the privilege to visit with an elderly woman of distinction.

The story began at the pre-ANA convention with a conversation with numismatist John Dannreuther.  He had just completed a week at the Smithsonian Institution helping to return the coin display to long-term storage.  He had examined the 1794 Flowing Hair dollar dies trial piece in copper in the National Numismatic Collection and had spoken with Dr. Richard Doty, the collections curator, about its manufacture. 

John and I had opinions about how the Mint managed to obtain such a good strike on the copper trial piece.  He mentioned that during the ANA convention, the owners of a 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar widely promoted as the first U.S. silver dollar struck were going to remove the coin from its slab and wanted to know if I would like to be there for "the event."  He wanted to inspect the edge of the coin.  I readily accepted his invitation. 

The next few days passed slowly waiting for my "date."  The appointed people congregated at the meeting place and we were led to another room for the viewing.  The excitement grew as Miss Liberty was led into the room with her entourage of security.  John was the first to view her after she was removed from her slab, announcing that the edge lettering appeared to be identical to that on the copper dies trial piece. 

We all had the opportunity to view her outside her protective slab.  She was incredible!  The luster was brilliant and cart wheeled over the surface like a Brilliant Uncirculated Morgan dollar.  She had light toning, but was obviously well cared for over the last two centuries. 

One of the most interesting things about her was that both adjustment marks and a silver plug were present.  Normally one would find only one or the other element on an individual coin.  The adjustment marks would reduce an overweight planchet to the standard weight and a silver plug would have been used to bring an underweight one up to the correct weight.

There was obviously great care taken to not only produce this particular coin, but also to preserve it for posterity.

One current opinion is that this is the first silver dollar coined by the fledgling Philadelphia Mint.  Although this opinion has merit, its point may be moot since it is likely the finest known.  My thoughts went to the days of the early Mint and the distinct possibility that Mint Director David Rittenhouse himself likely handled this same coin more than 200 years prior to my opportunity.  Time went all too quickly and she was soon whisked away to be returned to her plastic resting place.

I mentioned to John that it was a shame that we could not have measured the diameter of the coin as I thought that it would be different from that of a "regular" business strike of the same date.  He seemed intrigued by my hypothesis and we soon returned to the bourse floor. 

The next day John found me on the floor and produced a caliper and mentioned he was going to again remove the dollar to measure its diameter.  I was again invited. 

I had taken some time to view some of the Cardinal collection dollars at the Superior Galleries bourse table earlier in the day.  They had two 1794 Flowing Hair dollars as part of the group, as well as a 1795 Flowing Hair dollar with a silver plug.  I suggested to John that if Professional Coin Grading Service would be willing to reslab one of the 1794 dollars and the 1795 dollar with silver plug, we would be able to do some comparisons at the viewing. 

John arranged the deal with PCGS and the owners of the Cardinal collection.  Much to our surprise, the specimen and circulation strike dollars of 1794 measured almost identically. 

Numerous measurements were taken, as no Flowing Hair or Draped Bust dollar is perfectly round.  This is due to their being struck in an open collar that allowed the planchets to expand uncontrolled during the minting process.

The edges were, however, different.  The specimen dollar had a much more distinctly lettered edge.  The letters and designs were more deeply incised than on the circulation strike coin we studied.  A comprehensive study of 1794 edges would be a terrific project!  The silver plugs on the two coins available showed no significant differences. 

Brad Karoleff is a vice president of the John Reich Collectors Society and editor of the club's journal.