1795 Flowing Hair Half Dollar

Silver at last

The United States Mint opened in Philadelphia on April 2, 1792, under its first director, the astronomer and instrument maker David Rittenhouse, but it could not coin precious metal right away. 1794 was the first year Mint staff had the required bonds in place to strike silver and gold. That year the new Flowing Hair design appeared on three silver coins at once: the half dime, the half dollar and the dollar.

The first half dollars were dated 1794 and made in small numbers, 23,464 in all by one count. The first delivery of about 5,300 pieces is usually dated December 1, 1794, though Walter Breen gave October 15. A second, larger batch was struck in early 1795 still using 1794-dated dies, to save the cost of making new ones; Wikipedia dates it to January 1795 and gives about 18,000 pieces, while another account records 18,164 coins delivered on February 4, 1795.

Then the Mint switched to dies dated 1795 and struck nearly 300,000 halves, 299,680 by the standard figure. That made 1795 the common date of the type: the 1795 halves are about ten times more plentiful than the 1794s. In 1796 a new Draped Bust portrait replaced Flowing Hair, leaving the design a two-year type.

Almost none of the silver belonged to the government. The early Mint coined bullion that private depositors brought in, and the young institution's hand-made dies, uneven planchets and adjustment filing show on a large share of the coins that survive.

The people behind it

The design is the work of Robert Scot, born in England in 1744, who came to America in 1775 and settled in Philadelphia around 1783 after years in Virginia. Best known at first for engraving bank notes, he joined the Mint on November 23, 1793, and served as its first Chief Engraver until his death in 1823. Scot designed the Flowing Hair, Draped Bust and Turban Head coinage.

Congress had specified that the silver coins carry a design "emblematic of Liberty." Scot answered with a small, youthful head of Liberty facing right, her hair streaming loose behind her, a look that has long been read as a symbol of freedom. On the reverse he placed a small eagle with spread wings inside an open wreath, ringed by UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

1795 was a year of turnover at the top. Rittenhouse resigned from the Mint on June 30, 1795, because of poor health, and died the following June. President George Washington appointed the South Carolina lawyer Henry William de Saussure as the second Director of the Mint for 1795; he was followed by Elias Boudinot.

Henry Voigt, the clockmaker who had helped Rittenhouse build his famous orrery, is recorded as delivering the first 5,300 half dollars in 1794.

Reading a 1795 half

The obverse shows LIBERTY above the head and the date below, with fifteen stars, eight on the left and seven on the right, for the fifteen states then in the Union. Both sides have toothed, or denticled, borders, which American half dollars kept until 1916. The edge is lettered FIFTY CENTS OR HALF A DOLLAR. Descriptions of the eagle's perch differ: one standard reference says a cloud, another a rock.

The name of this variety comes from the reverse. Under each of the eagle's wings, the wreath shows a clump of leaves. On most dies there are two leaves in each clump; one reverse die has three. The Two Leaves coins are by far the more common, and the Two Leaves category is a catch-all for 26 different die varieties. The single three-leaves reverse was paired with an obverse showing a boldly doubled date (Overton-111), and that same obverse also struck O-112.

Specialists count about 32 die marriages for the date, made from 19 obverse and 22 reverse dies, and use Al C. Overton's book on early half dollar die varieties to identify them. Most 1795 dies share a master portrait with a single line at the truncation of Liberty's bust; a few show an extra curve below it and are called the Small Head or Narrow Bust. Other named varieties include a recut 1795/1795 date and a reverse with the A in STATES punched over an errant E. The rarest marriages, O-118 and O-132, have been reported but not confirmed in recent years.

Expect imperfections. Planchets that came out over the legal weight were filed across their faces until they met the standard, and the deep parallel adjustment lines often survived striking. Areas of weak strike are normal. Many survivors also fail to get a numeric grade because of cleaning, damage or holes drilled to wear the coin and later plugged.

From pocket change to pedigree

These were coins for commerce, and few if any were set aside when new. Most 1795 halves are found from About Good to Fine. Very Fine coins are scarce, Extremely Fine scarcer, About Uncirculated rare, and Mint State coins seldom met with.

The finest have long and documented pedigrees. A PCGS MS64 Two Leaves coin traces back to Harlan P. Smith, sold in 1906, then to John M. Clapp and his son John H. Clapp, whose collection was sold intact in 1942 to Louis E. Eliasberg Sr. At the Eliasberg sale in April 1997 it brought $82,500. Another MS64 belonged to Dr. J. Hewitt Judd, sold for $99,000 in October 1990 and later formed part of the Foxfire Collection, which was sold privately as a whole in October 2004.

Both coins, along with the finest-known PCGS MS65, ended up with D. Brent Pogue. When Pogue's collection went to auction in May 2015, the MS65 realized $411,250 and each of the two MS64s $199,750. A PCGS MS63+ with a pedigree back to the Thomas Cleneay collection of 1890 and through Col. E.H.R. Green brought $129,250 in August 2014; another MS64 Two Leaves sold for $144,000.

The circulated coins that match this entry's grade change hands far more often. A toned PCGS AU58 with a green CAC sticker sold online on August 30, 2026, for $52,875 after 42 bids.

Why collectors want one

The 1795 is the date a type collector can actually find. With only two years of the design, and the 1794 roughly ten times scarcer, anyone who wants a Flowing Hair half for a set of early American silver types almost always ends up with a 1795, which keeps demand steady.

The half dollar itself has been struck in nearly every year since 1794; only the cent has been made more consistently. The 1795 sits at the start of that long run, a coin from the decade when the federal Mint was still proving it could make money at all.

The date still has secrets. A previously unknown die marriage, made from a new obverse die paired with a known reverse, was confirmed by PCGS and designated Overton-133. The Colorado dealer who submitted it said it was only the second new 1795 half dollar marriage found since 1881, after O-132, which was discovered before 1929.

The numbers

Mintage

299,680 dated 1795 (plus 1794-dated coins struck in early 1795)

Known survivors

No total is published in the sources used; 1795s are about ten times as plentiful as 1794s, and three are graded PCGS MS65

Weight

13.48 grams

Diameter

32.50 millimeters

Composition

Listed as 90% silver, 10% copper; also described as the .8924 fine standard of the 1792 Mint Act

Edge

Lettered: FIFTY CENTS OR HALF A DOLLAR

Designer

Robert Scot

Die marriages

About 32 (19 obverse, 22 reverse dies), plus Overton-133

Timeline

1. Apr 2, 1792

   The United States Mint opens in Philadelphia under director David Rittenhouse.

2. Nov 23, 1793

   Robert Scot is appointed to the Mint; he will design the Flowing Hair coinage.

3. Dec 1, 1794

   The first half dollars, about 5,300 pieces dated 1794, are delivered (Walter Breen gave October 15).

4. Feb 4, 1795

   A second delivery of 18,164 halves is recorded, still struck from 1794-dated dies (Wikipedia places this batch in January 1795).

5. 1795

   The Mint strikes 299,680 half dollars dated 1795.

6. Jun 30, 1795

   David Rittenhouse resigns as Mint Director for poor health; Henry William de Saussure becomes the second director.

7. 1796

   The Draped Bust portrait replaces Flowing Hair on the half dollar.

8. Nov 1, 1823

   Robert Scot dies.

9. Dec 1890

   A Mint State 1795 half from the Thomas Cleneay collection sells; it later belongs to Col. E.H.R. Green.

10. May 1906

    The Harlan P. Smith collection is sold, including a 1795 half later graded PCGS MS64.

11. 1942

    The John H. Clapp collection, including that coin, is sold intact to Louis E. Eliasberg Sr.

12. Oct 1990

    The Judd MS64 sells for $99,000.

13. Apr 1997

    The Eliasberg MS64 sells for $82,500.

14. Aug 2014

    The Cleneay-Green PCGS MS63+ sells for $129,250.

15. May 2015

    The D. Brent Pogue collection sale: the PCGS MS65 brings $411,250 and two PCGS MS64s bring $199,750 each.

16. Jan 15, 2023

    A PCGS MS64+ 1795 half dollar sells for $348,000.

17. Aug 30, 2026

    A toned PCGS AU58 with a CAC sticker sells online for $52,875 after 42 bids.

The world in 1795

• Jan 14, 1795

  The University of North Carolina opens at Chapel Hill, the first state university in the United States to take students.

• Feb 7, 1795

  The Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed.

• Apr 7, 1795

  France adopts the metric system.

• Jun 24, 1795

  The U.S. Senate ratifies the Jay Treaty with Great Britain.

• Aug 3, 1795

  The Treaty of Greenville ends the Northwest Indian War.

• Oct 24, 1795

  The Third Partition of Poland divides the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth among the Habsburg monarchy, Prussia and the Russian Empire.

• Oct 27, 1795

  The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Madrid, setting boundaries and opening the Mississippi to American commerce.

• Nov 2, 1795

  The French Directory takes power.

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, 1795 Flowing Hair Half Dollar is number 80 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 (44 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The first half dollars struck in 1795 were dated 1794: the Mint kept using old dies to save the cost of new ones.
• Planchets that were too heavy were filed down by hand before striking, and the file marks often still show on the finished coin.
• The "Two Leaves" name refers to the clump of leaves under each of the eagle's wings; only one 1795 reverse die has three.
• Every American half dollar had toothed borders until 1916.
• The 1795 half dollar is about ten times more plentiful than the 1794, which makes it the date most type collectors own.
• A new 1795 die marriage, Overton-133, was confirmed in modern times after the coin had been sold unattributed.
• Mint Director David Rittenhouse, under whom the first halves were made, resigned in the middle of 1795.