1795 $1 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar NGC MS63

Here's a great numismatic treasure from the early days of our nation. Out of an original mintage of 160,295 there are perhaps 5,000 pieces that survive today. The dearth of specimens today is because the bulk of our early silver dollars were shipped off to the Orient to compete with the Spanish Carolus dollars in trade. However, Chinese merchants did not trust the new, unfamiliar U.S. dollars, and most of them ended up being melted down and converted into Chinese forms of bullion called Sycee.

NGC has graded 8 as MS63, with 20 finer. Ron Guth writes, "The Flowing Hair design appeared on the first United States Silver Dollars in 1794, but only lasted until sometime in 1795, when it was replaced with the Draped Bust design. The 1794 Silver Dollar is a rare coin, represented by approximately 150-200 survivors. The 1795 Silver Dollar is much more common, but the demand from type collectors keeps the prices high."

The first U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, where this classic piece was struck in 1795.

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."