FLOAT
Obverse of the 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar in the Smithsonian's National Numismatic Collection. The FLOAT constituent is priced on the Cardinal-Morelan specimen; the pictured coin is the Smithsonian's example of the same issue.
Obverse of the 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar in the Smithsonian's National Numismatic Collection. The FLOAT constituent is priced on the Cardinal-Morelan specimen; the pictured coin is the Smithsonian's example of the same issue.

1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar

Maker
U.S. Mint (Philadelphia)
Year
1794
Rank
2 of 100
Identifier
$1 silver, Flowing Hair, silver plug, PCGS SP66 (Cardinal-Morelan specimen, believed first US silver dollar struck)

1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar

Realized at auction: $10,016,875, dated 2013-01-24. This is a realized sale. Somebody paid it.

What is it, and why is it in the FLOAT 100?

The first U.S. silver dollar and the first coin ever to break $10 million at auction; a foundational American rarity.

$1 silver, Flowing Hair, silver plug, PCGS SP66 (Cardinal-Morelan specimen, believed first US silver dollar struck)

What is the best-sourced number for it?

Figure
$10,016,875
Kind
Realized at auction
Date
2013-01-24

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar is number 3 of 100 in the coins entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (2 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

How this is made

The figure
One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
Realized or not
A realized price is a completed sale. A market asking price and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
Why no grade ladder
Most FLOAT 100 entries are individual objects. There is one of this, so there is no population and no spread across grades to show.
Archive
2026-08-08

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