Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States - A Complete Encyclopedia
Q. David Bowers
Analysis of the Economite Hoard
What can be learned from these numbers? Here are some of my ideas:
1. First, as noted earlier, the 1794 figure is not statistically significant, so no further comment will be made concerning its mintage vs. the Economite percentage.
2. It seems apparent that the Economite figures suggest that the official mintage of 1797 is way out of kilter. The official mintage figures of 72,920 1796 dollars and only 7,776 1797 dollars suggest that only about 1/9th as many 1797 dollars were struck as were those dated 1796. However, experience with surviving coins=not only with the Economite Hoard survivors but with inventories in general-suggests that there is no way that today, in the early 1990, specimens of 1797-dated dollars are nine times rarer than those dated 1796.
3. All the government numbers tell us is that between January 1, 1796 and December 31, 1796, 72,920 silver dollars were struck; and that between January 1, 1797 and December 31, 1797, 7,776 silver dollars were coined. In actuality, we know nothing about the date(s) appearing on the coins. While the Mint did occasionally overdate silver dollar dies-as in 1799/8 and 1802/1-in other instances they did not do this. For example, the 19,570 coins struck in the calendar year 1804 did not bear the 1804 date; q.v. they were dated before 1804, probably 1803 and/or other earlier dates.
Analysis of Certification Data
Another area of investigation is that of certification data published by the Numismatic. Guaranty Corporation of America (NGC) and the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS). The following numbers represent early silver 'dollars (excluding 1801-2-3 Proof novodels) certified in all grades as of October 1992.
Grades are divided into three groups: Good through VF, EF and AU, and MS-60 and finer.
PCGS + NGC Certification Data
Condensed NGC + PCGS Certification Data
To make the NGC and PCGS data compatible with the categories into which the Economite Hoard was broken, the numbers are condensed in the table below. For example, the 1795 FH (Flowing Hair) and DB (Draped Bust) dollars are added together to get one set of numbers for 1795.
Taking the above certification percentages and multiplying them by the official government mintage figure total of 1,438,566 for the 1794-1803 years, adjusted mintage figures are obtained as given below. For example, the number of 1795 dollars certified represents 24.7% of the total of all early dollars certified. If the government mintage total of 1,438,566 is multiplied by this percentage, the yield is 335,326.
The adjusted mintage figures from the Economite data, given earlier, are also listed-for comparison purposes. NA = Not applicable or not available. Numbers in parentheses are summaries of 1801-2-3 figures and are not added into the totals.
