Q. David Bowers
Adjustment marks: At the time the Mint did not have elaborate quality-control procedures in place, and it was difficult to produce planchets precisely of the required weight. Accordingly, the typical planchet was made slightly heavier than needed, and the weight was adjusted by hand filing to the correct level. Underweight planchets would have been useless, as their weight could not have been increased, and they instead were discarded, to go through the entire process of melting, conversion to ingots, rolling the strip, and punching planchets again. (In 1795, the problem of underweight planchets may have been solved by plugging; see description under 1795.)
Evidence of the hand filing is seen today in the form of parallel or criss-cross grooves known as adjustment marks. The majority of 1794 dollars show these marks, usually at the lower left obverse and the corresponding part of the reverse, where metal flow was not as great (due to non-parallel die alignment; in this area the dies were too far apart, little metal movement occurred, and adjustment marks on the original planchet were less likely to be obliterated).
Edge lettering: To prevent filing and clipping by the public to reduce a minted coin's weight, it was desired to ornament the edge. In this way, the removal of silver could be detected. For the silver dollar, lettering was applied by a machine which rolled the finished planchet between two parallel steel bars, upon each of which was half of the edge lettering inscription: HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT and ornamentation between words.
These steel bars compressed the letters incuse into the edge of each planchet, and at the same time raised a rim around the border of each side of the planchet. Apparently, the height of the rim varied over a period of time, for some 1794-1803 dollars are known with rims that are almost flat, and others have rims that are quite high.
The raised rim did several things:
1. During the striking process, the metal could flow more easily into the toothlike notches at the edge of each die, to create denticles around the border.
2. The raised rim would protect the coin's surface from wear, and it would last longer in circulation. Coins with low rims wore quickly; those with high rims preserved their details for a greater length of time.
3. The coins would stack better, a convenience to banks, merchants, and counting houses.
In later years (beginning with the 1836 Gobrecht issues), the Mint would raise the rims on silver dollars by means of an upsetting machine; the closed collar equalized diameters. However, in the 1790s, whatever rim was to be raised was a by-product of the process of squeezing the edge of the coin during the lettering process.
Dollars struck: In 1793 and 1794, the largest press at the Mint was intended for striking no coins larger than a half dollar. Surviving documents indicate that Mint officials lamented the lack of a press suitable for coining silver dollars and medals. It was not until spring 1795 that one was installed.
In the meantime, a screw press suitable for coining cents and half dollars was put into service to make silver dollars. The initial coinage of the new denomination was accomplished in the first part of October 1794. The effort was not completely successful, as evidenced by surviving coins which show areas of weak striking. Apparently, just one blow of the press was used (as evidenced by the lack of double struck features on surviving pieces).
Known silver dollars dated 1794 are from a single pair of dies and are believed to have been made to the extent of, perhaps, 2,000 coins (Walter H. Breen's estimate), of which 1,758 pieces were considered to be satisfactory delivered by the coiner on October 15, 1794. The remaining impressions, possibly amounting to 242 coins, rejected as being too weak, probably were kept on hand for later use as planchets. Supporting this theory is the existence of at least one 1795 silver dollar (BB-14) plainly overstruck on a 1794 dollar.
As several die states exist, the striking could not have been continuous, but was interrupted by the removal of the dies from the press for resurfacing (relapping) after clash marks were sustained early in their life (see Die States below). The silver for striking these came from ingot deposits made by Director Rittenhouse and Charles Gilchrist. This is certain, because Rittenhouse personally received all the first coinage of dollars. (Certain information in this paragraph is from R.W.Julian, letter to the author, December 7,1992)
The obverse and reverse die faces were not parallel, with the result that on almost all pieces surviving today the lower left obverse side appears weaker than the upper right obverse side, with corresponding weakness and strength on the opposite areas of the reverse. As the die faces remained out of parallel after having been removed from the press for resurfacing and removal of clash marks, and reinserted in the press, the cause of the maladjustment must have been that the face of one die (or, less likely, both) was not perpendicular to its shank.
After the effort at coining dollars, the project was abandoned as a bad job, and a large supply of silver dollar planchets was put into chests for storage until a larger, satisfactory press could be installed. Thus, the mintage of 1794 dollars was much smaller than had been intended.