1795 $1 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar, 3 Leaves NGC AU55

Here’s a classic example to include in your numismatic portfolio. The first silver dollar of our great nation was the Flowing Hair dollar. And even though the 1795 issue can be on the expensive side, when compared to the price of the 1794 issue, it is a real bargain. NGC has graded 61 as AU55 with 123 finer. Collectors Universe prices the 1795 dollar with 3 Leaves at $45,000.00 in AU55.

Out of the mintage of 160,295 1795 Flowing Hair dollars, there are just about 4,100 pieces of them available to collectors today. But why is that? Despite the fact that the early U.S. silver dollars contained less silver than the ubiquitous Spanish (8 Reales or “Carolus”) dollars, in the West Indies they were trading at par. Therefore, merchants purchased Flowing Hair dollars and shipped them to the West Indies to trade for Spanish dollars.

The First Philadelphia Mint, where Spanish dollars were brought to produce more Flowing Hair dollars. Image: Public domain.

After acquiring them, they would then bring the Spanish dollars to the Philadelphia Mint to serve as bullion in order to strike new Flowing Hair dollars. Then they would bring the freshly-minted Flowing Hair dollars to the West Indies to exchange for more of the Spanish dollars. Since there was no seigniorage charged by the Mint for that service, it became a continuous cycle of exchange arbitrage.

After the silver dollars were exchanged in the West Indies, they were shipped off to China to compete with the Spanish dollars in trade. However, Chinese merchants did not trust U.S. dollars, which weighed less than the Spanish ones, and virtually all of them ended up being chopped, discounted, melted down, and converted into Chinese bullion called Sycee.