Q. David Bowers
The preceding deliveries demonstrate that silver dollars were coined on many different occasions throughout the 1795 year. Most deliveries were of Flowing Hair type dollars, with the later deliveries being of the new Draped Bust type. It is not known exactly when Draped Bust dollars were first delivered, nor is it known that from that point all were of the new type. I consider it likely that leftover 1795 Flowing Hair dollar dies and their appropriate reverses were also used after 1795.
When it was desired that dollars be coined, a pair of dies would be taken from the die chest or vault and placed into the press. Inasmuch as there are few instances of random mixing of dies, it was probably the usual case (with some exceptions) that a die pair would be used until one of the dies broke or otherwise became unusable. The defective die would be removed, and another die put in its place. Coining would resume. Eventually, another die would break-perhaps the newer one put in recently, or perhaps the older of the two dies. Another die would be installed. This process went on and on, creating die linking. By means of studying die states, numismatists today can determine the order of striking of certain varieties.
I assume that the earlier mintage of 1795 dollars, for the deliveries for May 1795 and a month or two afterward, were from dies with the PI (Head of 1794) obverse and the WI (two leaves under each wing) reverse. As more dies were made, these were mixed up with dies already on hand, and any semblance of logical sequence was lost. I believe that the two reverse dies with the WII style wreath (three leaves under each wing) were the last made for use with the Flowing Hair obverses, and were manufactured no earlier than late summer 1795.
Coinage in 1795 vs. later years: As noted in the introduction to the section On early dollars, it seems likely to me that tens of thousands of 1795-dated dollars were made after 1795, perhaps in 1796 but most likely in 1798, If this is the case, can it be determined which varieties were coined in 1795 and which were minted later?-The answer cannot be definitive, but there are some varieties which were certainly minted in 1795. These include the following:
BB-11, BB-13, BB-14, BB-18, and BB-21, because these varieties are known with silver 'alloy plugs in the center, the correction of a problem believed to have been unique to the 1795 year (see "A curious situation" below).BB-14 (additional verification), because an example of this variety is known overstruck on a 1794 dollar, presumably one on hand early in 1795. It is believed that a couple of hundred or more defective 1794 dollars were kept at the Mint and overstruck in May 1795 when the new press became available.
BE-18 and 13B-20, because these varieties were a part of the Lord St. Oswald Collection consisting of coins said to have been gathered in America in autumn 1795.
Putting together the preceding, the list of "positive" 1795 striking includes these varieties: BB-11, BB-13, 13B-14, BB-18, BB-20, and BB-21. These are a mixture of motif punch styles, verifying that these die classes were employed at the Mint in no particular order. To be specific:
BB-11: Portrait I, Eagle I, Wreath I. Earlier obverse portrait and reverse styles.
BB-13: Portrait I, Eagle I, Wreath I. Earlier obverse portrait and reverse styles.
BB-14: Portrait I, Eagle I, Wreath I. Earlier obverse portrait and reverse styles.
BB-18: Portrait I, Eagle I, Wreath II. Earlier obverse portrait and earlier eagle style with later wreath style.
BB-20: Portrait II, Eagle I, Wreath I. Later obverse portrait in combination with earlier eagle motif and wreath style.
BB-21: Portrait II, Eagle I, Wreath I. Later obverse portrait in combination with earlier eagle motif and wreath style.
Arranged another way:
Earlier obverse portrait and reverse styles. BB-11, BE-13, and BB-14.
Earlier obverse portrait and earlier eagle style with later wreath style: BB-18.
Later obverse portrait in combination with earlier eagle motif and wreath style: BB-20 and BB-21.
A curious situation: (This situation was first described by the author in 1981. Tom DeLorey, Kenneth E. Bressett, and Roger W. Burdette, among others, corresponded with the author on the subject in 1991-1992.)Several examples of 1795 Flowing Hair dollars (including BB-11, BB-13, BB-14, BB-18, and BB-21 varieties) have been seen with a circular (more or less) silver plug in the center, the outline of the plug being visible at the center of the obverse and reverse. (As of October 26, 1992, Kenneth E. Bressett had examined three plugged specimens of BB-12, one of BB-11, one of BB-13 plus a photograph of another BB-13), one of BB-14, and two of BB-18. Letter to the author, October 26, 1992.) The plugs were inserted before the coins were struck, as they were flattened by the dies and carry impressions of the design. Why these plugs were used is not known. It is quite possible, indeed likely, that numerous other dollars exist with central plugs, but that the flattening during the striking process was so complete that no trace remains of them today. Often, the different alloy of the central plug caused it to tone differently.
It may have been that during the weighing process, certain planchets were found to be slightly too light. Rather than go through the process of melting the planchets, casting the metal into ingots, rolling strips from the ingots, and making new planchets, it may have been deemed more expedient to drill a small hole in the center of the lightweight planchet and insert a silver plug, extending slightly above and below the planchet surface; a plug with enough extra weight to compensate for the drilled hole and also the deficiency in the original planchet weight. The planchet-with-plug was then struck by dies, flattening the plug and producing coins as observed. The Mint had the technological capability of inserting such plugs, as evidenced by the 1792 silver-center pattern cents (Judd-I).
The complicated nature of planchet making in 1801, a year not distant from the 1795 year under discussion, is illustrated by this quotation from The U.S. Mint and Coinage:(Don Taxay, 1966, P: 35. The discussion was part of a Mint effort to discredit one Robert Leslie, who proposed introducing roller dies ("double cylinder dies") to the Mint.)
"Voigt said that the gold and silver planchets underwent 32 operations before they were ready to receive an impression." However, the same text also noted this: "Voigt's 32 operations must have included many subdivisions, and perhaps the labor of various clerks." Even so, it is clear that planchet making was not an simple process.