1799/8 $1 Draped Bust Silver Dollar, 15 Reverse Stars BB-141 NGC VF30

Here's a fin de siècle coin from the early days of the U.S. Mint. NGC has graded 75 as VF30, with 199 finer. Collectors Universe prices it at $3,750.00. The mintage of the 1799 Draped Bust silver dollar was plentiful for its time: 423,515. 

However, the surviving total population is approximately 6,500. That is because a great majority of the Draped Bust dollars were shipped to the East to be part of the China trade. The dollars of 1799 were worth $1.03 when they were produced at the Philadelphia Mint, which made them excellent candidates for instruments of international trade. Such coins were rarely seen in American commerce. Those that survived were mostly stored in the First Bank of the United States.

The Empress of China (1783), the first American ship to trade with China. The vast majority of early U.S. silver dollars disappeared from our shores on this and other ships and were sent to China to trade for tea and other goods.

Writes NGC Coin Explorer, “The large number of dies prepared for 1798's silver dollar coinage included one that was overdated 1799/8 the following year. This could be accomplished only with a die not previously used, as the hardening process precluded alterations to the date, thus there are no coins known from this die prior to its being overdated. The single overdated die was used in combination with three different reverses. BB-141 is the most common marriage…”