1795 $1 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar, Silver Plug, BB-18 NGC VF35

Here’s a rare piece for the specialist in Flowing Hair coinage. NGC has graded a total of 10 examples of the 1795 $1 Flowing Hair, Silver Plug, BB-18. Of those, there are 2 in VF with 7 finer. Collectors Universe give this variety a price of $30,000.00 in VF35.

Medium gray surfaces display traces of lilac and blue, with light reddish-tan toning upon the devices. Plus there is a brush stroke of lighter silver coloration at the lower left obverse. Both sides have the typical minor handling marks for a coin of this grade and age.

Writes Heritage Auctions in a 2010 listing of this coin: “Wavy marks across Liberty's neck and jaw suggest the irregular outline of a mint inserted silver plug, intended to adjust the weight of the planchet to the standards of the time. The absence of readily visible adjustment marks suggest that the planchet was initially underweight, and that the silver plug served to bring the planchet up to standard weight.”

The First Philadelphia Mint, where the Flowing Hair dollars were produced. Image: Public domain.

It was in 1794 that a journalist first saw the then new Flowing Hair design upon a dollar and wrote a brief report on it. "Some of the dollars now coining at the Mint of the United States have found their way to this town. A correspondent put one into the editor's hand yesterday." He described the design elements found on both sides, as well as upon the edge. He concludes, "The tout ensemble has a pleasing effect to a connoisseur; but the touches of the graver are too delicate, and there is a want of that boldness of execution which is necessary to durability and currency."

Writes numismatic art historian Cornelius Vermeule, "This criticism of device, style, and execution is one of the earliest surviving impressions of the first monumental coin of the United States." He discusses the Flowing Hair design of Robert Scot: "The young face and the youthful, flowing hair were admired symbols of the young republic." He also discusses the "goose-necked, tubular eagle within a wreath."