1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar

A dollar for a country that had none

In the 1780s the United States had no coins of its own. Americans paid with a mix of foreign and state money, above all the Spanish dollar, the eight-real piece known as a piece of eight. On January 28, 1791, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton sent Congress a report on the money system. He had Spanish dollars assayed and recommended that an American dollar hold 371.25 grains of silver in a coin weighing 416 grains, the rest copper.

Congress authorized a federal mint by joint resolution on March 3, 1791, but gave it no money. Washington pressed the point in his address to Congress on October 25, 1791, and the Coinage Act of 1792, signed April 2, 1792, created the United States Mint. The Senate had wanted Washington's portrait on every coin; the House insisted on an allegorical Liberty instead, and the House won.

Mint Director David Rittenhouse laid the foundation stone in Philadelphia on July 31, 1792, and the Mint struck its first cents in February 1793. Silver had to wait. The law required the chief coiner and assayer to post $10,000 bonds, which the assayer could not raise. Congress cut the bonds to $5,000 and $1,000 on March 3, 1794, and silver coinage finally became possible.

The men who made it

Engraver Robert Scot began designing the dollar early in 1794. Born in England in 1744, he had come to America in 1775 and was appointed to the Mint on November 23, 1793. His Liberty, with loose flowing hair, followed his design for the cent with the cap removed. Officials asked him to wrap a wreath around the reverse eagle and move the denomination to the edge. Frederick Geiger, who had worked as a typographer, cut the lettering. After copper test pieces were struck, fifteen stars were added around Liberty for the fifteen states then in the Union.

Assayer Albion Cox told Rittenhouse that the legal silver standard of about .892 was hard to produce and would darken in circulation, and recommended .900 fine at the same 416-grain weight. The Mint took his advice. The coins therefore held more silver than the statute allowed, and depositors lost about one percent of their bullion. The largest depositor, John Vaughan, put his loss at $2,260, and Congress approved his reimbursement in 1800.

The silver for the 1794 dollars came entirely from ingots Rittenhouse himself deposited on August 22, 1794. Chief Coiner Henry Voigt struck the coins on a man-powered screw press meant for coins no larger than a half dollar, and most of the 1794 dollars came out weakly struck.

October 15, 1794

Rittenhouse's handwritten warrant of October 15, 1794, records 1,758 silver dollars moving from Voigt to Mint Treasurer Nicholas Way, and a second warrant the same day returns them to Rittenhouse against his silver deposit. That was the only day dollars were coined in 1794. Some researchers put the number struck at about 2,000, with 1,758 delivered.

The next day, October 16, Secretary of State Edmund Randolph forwarded one of the new dollars, received from Rittenhouse, to President Washington for inspection. Rittenhouse spent and traded many of the coins to get them into circulation, and others went to distinguished visitors. On November 26, 1794, a Boston newspaper reported the first dollars had reached town and judged the engraving too delicate for a coin meant to circulate.

Rittenhouse then halted dollar production until the Mint had a stronger press. It was ready in early 1795, and the first 3,810 dollars of that year were delivered on May 6. The Flowing Hair design was replaced in October 1795 by the Draped Bust dollar.

Why this one is believed to be first

The Neil-Carter coin looks like no other 1794 dollar. Its strike is sharp where the rest are weak, and its fields are reflective. Experts cite several reasons to think it was the first struck: it is in the same die state as the copper die trial in the Smithsonian; it was struck from aligned dies, which later 1794 dollars were not; its planchet was burnished before striking; and it shows no sign of ever having been bagged with other coins.

It also carries a repair made at the Mint. The planchet was underweight, so a silver plug about 8 millimeters across was set into its center, and the blank was then filed to weight. Plugs are known on a number of 1795 dollars, but this is the only 1794 dollar known to have one. The grading service NGC announced the plug's discovery on March 21, 2003, and the coin weighs 416.24 grains, nearly the legal standard.

PCGS, which does not certify any U.S. coin struck before 1816 as a proof, graded it Specimen 66 in 2003, a designation reserved for coins struck with special care. PCGS co-founder David Hall said the first time he saw it, 'it made my heart thump.'

From $1,250 to $12 million

The coin's confirmed pedigree runs through some of the great American collections: Virgil Brand, a 1945 fixed-price list, C. David Pierce, Art and Paul Kagin, and Will W. Neil, whose collection sold in June 1947, where this coin brought $1,250. Several accounts, including a 2022 PCGS report, also place it with Col. E.H.R. Green, though the confirmed pedigree PCGS published in 2016 does not list him. The buyer in 1947 was Fort Worth newspaper publisher Amon G. Carter Sr., and the coin stayed with the Carter family until it sold at auction in January 1984 for $264,000.

It sold at auction twice more, in January 1986 and in May 1991, the second time for $506,000, then passed privately through the Knoxville Collection and a dealer to Steven Contursi, a dealer himself, who bought it in June 2003. It was shown publicly from 2004 to 2009 at the American Numismatic Association's money museum and at shows around the country.

In May 2010 the Cardinal Collection Educational Foundation, represented by researcher Martin Logies, bought it privately for $7.85 million, then a record for any coin. On January 24, 2013, it sold at auction in New York for $10,016,875, an $8,525,000 hammer price plus a 17.5 percent buyer's fee, to collector Bruce Morelan bidding through an agent. It was the first coin to pass $10 million at auction.

Morelan offered it at auction in Las Vegas in October 2020; bids did not reach the reserve and he kept it. In January 2022 he sold it privately for $12 million to a rare-coin auction firm, making it the world's most valuable silver coin and, at the time, the second-highest price paid for any coin.

How to know a 1794 dollar

Every 1794 dollar comes from one pair of dies, the variety catalogued as B-1, BB-1. The coin weighs 416 grains (26.96 grams), measures about 39 to 40 millimeters, and is 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper. Liberty faces right among fifteen stars; the reverse shows an eagle in a wreath; the edge is lettered HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT with ornaments, applied before striking on a Castaing machine.

Because planchets were filed to correct their weight, adjustment marks are normal on these coins and are not damage. Weak striking is typical of the 1794 run. The Neil-Carter coin's full strike, reflective fields and center plug are what set it apart.

How many survive is disputed. Historian Jack Collins estimated 120 to 130 in the early 1990s; recent press accounts give about 140 to 150; a museum director quoted in 2020 suggested perhaps 300. Other fine examples have brought high prices too: the Lord St. Oswald coin, graded MS66+, sold for $4,993,750 in September 2015 and $6.6 million in August 2021.

The numbers

Delivered, 1794

1,758 (one day, October 15); one estimate puts the number struck at about 2,000

Known survivors

About 120-130 (1990s estimate) to about 140-150 (recent estimates); disputed

Weight

416 grains (26.96 grams); this coin weighs 416.24 grains

Diameter

About 39-40 mm

Composition

90% silver, 10% copper (the 1792 law called for about 89.24% silver)

Edge

Lettered: HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT

Dies

One pair for the whole year: B-1, BB-1

Designer

Robert Scot; lettering by Frederick Geiger

This coin's grade

PCGS Specimen 66; the only 1794 dollar designated Specimen by PCGS

Timeline

1. Jan 28, 1791

   Alexander Hamilton reports to Congress, recommending a 416-grain dollar based on the Spanish dollar.

2. Apr 2, 1792

   Washington signs the Coinage Act, creating the United States Mint.

3. Jul 31, 1792

   David Rittenhouse lays the Philadelphia Mint's foundation stone.

4. Nov 23, 1793

   Robert Scot is appointed engraver of the Mint.

5. Aug 22, 1794

   Rittenhouse deposits the silver ingots used for every 1794 dollar.

6. Oct 15, 1794

   1,758 silver dollars are delivered, the only dollars coined that year.

7. Oct 16, 1794

   Secretary of State Edmund Randolph forwards a new dollar to President Washington.

8. May 6, 1795

   With a new press, the Mint delivers its first 3,810 dollars of 1795.

9. Jun 1947

   The Will W. Neil collection sells; this coin brings $1,250 and goes to Amon G. Carter Sr.

10. Jan 1984

    The coin sells at auction from the Carter family collection for $264,000.

11. May 1991

    The coin sells at auction for $506,000.

12. Mar 21, 2003

    NGC announces the discovery of the coin's silver plug.

13. Jun 2003

    Steven Contursi acquires the coin; PCGS grades it Specimen 66 that year.

14. May 2010

    The Cardinal Collection Educational Foundation buys it privately for $7.85 million.

15. Jan 24, 2013

    It sells at auction in New York for $10,016,875 to Bruce Morelan.

16. Oct 8, 2020

    Offered at auction in Las Vegas, it fails to meet its reserve and Morelan keeps it.

17. Jan 2022

    Morelan sells it privately for $12 million.

The world in 1794

• Jan 13, 1794

  Congress adopts a flag of 15 stars and 15 stripes after Vermont and Kentucky join the Union.

• Mar 14, 1794

  Eli Whitney receives a patent for the cotton gin.

• Mar 27, 1794

  Congress authorizes the first six ships of the U.S. Navy.

• Jul 17, 1794

  In the Whiskey Rebellion, about 500 armed Pennsylvanians burn General John Neville's home.

• Aug 7, 1794

  Washington calls out 12,500 militia to put down the rebellion.

• Nov 19, 1794

  The United States and Great Britain sign the Jay Treaty.

• Dec 8, 1794

  Fire destroys more than 200 buildings in New Orleans' French Quarter.

Price record

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. 96 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.

Did you know

• Every 1794 silver dollar was delivered on a single day, October 15, 1794.
• The silver in the first U.S. dollars came from ingots deposited by the Mint Director himself, David Rittenhouse.
• The Mint quietly made its silver dollars finer than the law allowed, and Congress later reimbursed the largest silver depositor.
• The Neil-Carter coin has a small silver plug in its center, added at the Mint to bring an underweight blank up to standard.
• Congress first wanted George Washington's portrait on U.S. coins; the House overruled the Senate and chose Liberty.
• In 1947 the Neil-Carter dollar sold for $1,250; in 2022 it sold for $12 million.
• When it was offered at auction in Las Vegas in 2020, the coin failed to meet its reserve and went home with its owner.