Q. David Bowers
Of the over 200 distinct major date and mintmark varieties of silver dollars and trade dollars delineated in detail in the pages to follow, I consider the following to be especially interesting. Devotees of Currier & Ives prints have their "Favorite Fifty," as do collectors of Ampico reproducing piano rolls. Such publications as The Book of Lists indicate the human desire for ordering and ranking things.
Here, then, is my list of some favorites in the silver dollar series, selected not because they are more valuable or less valuable, but because each has an interesting story behind it. No one will ever form a collection of just these dollars, for to do so would be to omit many other deserving coins. If the list has any use, it is to point out that dollars do not stand alone as dates or mintmarks but, rather, are part of history. Here goes:
• 1. 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar. I selected this because above all other dollars, it was the one coin that was de rigueur in any nineteenth century collection of American silver dollars; to lack a dollar of this date was to fall short of the mark. In reinforcement of this, any catalogue containing a 1794 dollar was apt to single it out as a highlight. Moreover, and more importantly, it is the first silver dollar of our nation, our finest and highest denomination silver coin sent out to the world to demonstrate America's declaration of coinage independence. The Continental Congress denominated its own currency in Spanish dollars. Now with the 1794 dollar and its descendants, hopefully American silver dollars would soon be the coin of the realm. As if another distinction were needed, the 1794 is one of three silver dollars (the others are the 1804 and 1921 Morgan) which has had a study written solely about it. Jack Collins' book, 1794: The History and Genealogy of the First United States Dollar, now in preparation, is expected to be published soon.
• 2. 1795 Flowing Hair dollar with a silver plug at the center, produced at the Mint during the planchet preparation process. This plug was added to the planchet before striking, possibly to increase the weight or, as Roger W. Burdette and Kenneth E. Bressett have suggested, (Letters to the author, 1992) to bring the fineness to the authorized government standard. As of 1993, the precise circumstances surrounding the coining of these plugged 1795 dollars are a first-class mystery.
• 3. 1797 9 Stars Left, 7 Right; Small Letters on Reverse silver dollar. I selected this as a representative of an elusive die variety in the silver dollar series, a coin which more often than not is seen in well worn grades; that is, when it is seen at all, for it is indeed rare. And yet, the coin is not particularly expensive. Although it is nearly as rare as the 1794 dollar and perhaps a half dozen times rarer than an 1895 dollar, the 1993 edition of the Guide Book prices a VF-20 coin for $3,500, certainly not a king's ransom. A spectacular specimen of this issue would be one in EF-45 or AU-50 grade. Here is a coin which the investor conditioned to believe "only MS-65 coins are worth buying" will surely ignore, a fact that will be appreciated by silver dollar connoisseurs who don't like the market competition from unknowing amateurs with fat wallets! The 1797 9 Stars Left, 7 Right, Small Letters on reverse silver dollar has never been the subject of an investment recommendation or discussion, to my knowledge.
• 4. 1804 silver dollar. More sentences, paragraphs, and pages have been written on the 1804 silver dollar than any other half dozen American coin varieties combined. During the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century any numismatic writer worth his salt felt moved to give an opinion or even write a position paper on this coin. Officials of the Mint felt likewise. The coin was an embarrassment, prized rarity, fraud, object of desire, or any one of many other things. In general, writers either loved the 1804 dollar or hated it; there seemed to be no middle ground. In 1962 the controversies permanently yielded to facts with the release of a book by Eric P. Newman and Kenneth E. Bressett, The Fantastic 1804 Dollar (which, incidentally, I think is one of the most masterful books in American numismatics). Since then we haven't read as many articles about the coin, and most cataloguers of 1804 dollars today quote or paraphrase the book. Just as the Hollywood cliche says, "Don't read your publicity-weigh it," all of the printed commentaries about the 1804 dollar, pro and con, have only served to increase its fame and market price.
• 5. 1836 Gobrecht silver dollar with name on base. Representing the first silver dollar minted for circulation in over 30 years, and having a very interesting story about the evolution of its design and the signature of the engraver, this coin is high on my list of numismatic favorites in the dollar series. This issue, too, has its mysteries, and the circumstances surrounding the production of these dollars in various die alignments have not been fully unravelled.
• 6. 1844 Liberty Seated silver dollar. I picked this date as an ideal representative of the early dates in the Liberty Seated series. The 1844 has one of the lowest mintages of its era and is the only dollar to have four elements ("quad stripes") in each shield stripe on the obverse; all others have three elements.