1795 $1 Draped Bust Silver Dollar, Off-Center PCGS VF35

Here’s a rare treasure from the early days of the First U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. PCGS has graded 41 of the Off-Center 1795 Draped Bust dollars as VF35 with 125 finer. Collector’s Universe prices this variety at $11,000.00

Writes Ron Guth in PCGS Coinfacts, “The 1795 Off-Center Bust Silver Dollar resulted when the engraver punched the bust of Liberty too far left into the die. Because of the high cost of die steel, the engraver completed the die in spite of the mis-placement of the bust, then coins were struck in normal production…. The Off-Center Bust is at least twice as rare as the Centered Bust.”

Obverse comparison of 1795 Draped Bust dollar CENTERED/OFF-CENTER BUST. Photo: PCGS Coinfacts.

The 1795 Draped Bust dollar is quite rare. Out of the entire mintage of 42,738, there are an estimated 1,400 total surviving pieces today. But where did all the other coins go? The U.S. silver dollar had less silver than the ubiquitous Spanish-American 8 Reales (aka Spanish dollar) that circulated in the United States at the time. The Draped Bust silver dollars of 1795 had 374.75 grains of silver, while full-bodied Spanish dollars had around 377.25 grains.

Even though that was the case, in the West Indies the U.S. dollar and the Spanish dollar traded at par. Therefore, it was profitable for merchants to partake in a continual cycle of exchange arbitrage: ship American silver dollars to the West Indies and trade them for Spanish dollars. In that manner the U.S. silver dollars virtually disappeared from circulation. The vast majority of U.S. silver dollars ended up being shipped off as part of the China trade, where they were discounted and melted into Chinese bullion called sycee.