Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States - A Complete Encyclopedia

• UNIQUE OVERSTRIKE on a 1794 dollar.• Offered by Kagin's Numismatic Auctions, as Lot 3221 in the 1987 ANA Convention Sale, was a coin described as follows:

1795 Unique! Struck over a 1794 dollar. Bolender 4. The only known specimen, and the first time this important coin has been offered at public auction. Discovered by Walter Breen, who first described it to the numismatic community in The Metropolitan Numismatic Journal, issue No.1, May-June 1961."1 The 1961 description follows:

"On the obverse of the 1795 can be plainly seen the eagle, a wreath, and parts of UNITED .... On the reverse of the 1795 are visible the profile and part of the back of Liberty's head .... Proof that the undertype is in fact a 1794 is easy. No other dollar reverse of this design except the 1794 has positions of U and final A in AMERICA as shown here ........... On this, all details that are visible match the 1794 exactly .......

"[Breen went on to suggest that the Mint was embarrassed with the weakly struck 1794s, and overstrikes could have been made as] testimony to the Mint's propaganda needs at a time when its detractors were ready to seize on anything available as evidence of its incompetence to make acceptable coins for the young and growing nation."

Pedigree of the 1795/1794 coin: From unidentified West Coast dealer who sold it at the Numismatic Association of Southern California Convention in Los Angeles circa 1960. Walter H. Breen, March 1961. Empire Coin Company, Inc. (Q. David Bowers and James F. Ruddy). Walter H. Breen (again), Central States Numismatic Society Convention, April 1961. Art Kagin. 1987 ANA Convention sale by Kagin's, Lot 3221, bought in. Richter Collection. Julian Leidman, offered for $50,000 at the ANA Convention, August 1992, but sold to the following for a lesser sum. Bowers and Merena Galleries, 1992.

• POPULATION DISTRIBUTION:
Approximate population MS-65 or better: 0 (URS-0)
Approximate population MS-64: 0 (URS-0)
Approximate population MS-63: 2 to 4 (URS-2)
Approximate population MS-60 to 62: 3 to 5 (URS-3)
Approximate population AU-50 to 58: 10 to 20 (URS-5)
Approximate population VF-20 to EF-45: 220 to 350 (URS-9)
Approximate population G-4 to F-15: 120 to 175 (URS-8)
Approximate population for all grades combined: 350 to 550 (URS-10)

• CONDITION CENSUS: 63-63-60-60-60-55 (multiples)

1795 Flowing Hair. BB-15.

Obv: Portrait II (Head of '95)
Rev: Eagle I, Wreath I (2 leaves)
(B-8. H-8.)

• OBVERSE 3: Flowing hair in six prominent curls. The second curl from the bottom points down to an inside ray of star 2. Very prominent shoulder loop. Stars 3 and 4 on the left are slightly closer together than the others. Stars 6 and 7 are slightly wider. On the right, stars 11 and 12 as well as stars 14 and 15 are closer than the rest. Star 1. touches the bottom of the lowest curl; the curl continues to almost completely close a circle. Star 8 is closer to base of L than star 9 is to base of Y. Star 15 is far from the bust, exactly 2 mm. from the bust tip. Wide date with the 1 and 7 wider apart than the other digits. The bust is high in the field, over 2.5 mm. above the 5 and under 1 mm. from LIBERTY at its closest point. LIBERTY is wide with LIB more widely spaced than the letters in BERTY.

This die bears a very close resemblance to the die used to coin BB-21, BB-22, and BB-23; especially with regard to the high position of the head and the relationship of the hair curl to the first star, and was probably created by the same person around the same time.

M.H. Bolender noted that the head is not well-centered, but too high and too far to left; however, this is neither definitive nor unique to the variety.
Obverse die used to strike 1795 BB-15 only.

- REVERSE D: Two leaves under each wing of eagle. Nine berries on the left branch, 10 on the right branch. Two berries inside the right branch, at the eagle's tail. No letters of the legend touch any leaf. The T of UNITED touches the eagle's dexter (observer's left) wing, while the R of AMERICA appears to touch the sinister wing but actually just misses. A berry on the outside of the right branch is below. the extreme left loot of the first A in AMERICA. A die scratch extends into the field from a denticle left of the first A in AMERICA.

This is one of just two 1795 reverses with two berries inside the branch near the eagle's tail (the other die is that used to coin. 1795 BB-20, BB-21, and BB-24). This-reverse die bears a very close relationship with the reverse used to coin 1795 BB-20, BB-21, and BB-24, and another die used to coin 1795 BB-23, and must have been prepared by the same person about the same time.

Reverse die used to strike 1795 BB-15 and BB-16.

- DIE STATES:
Die State I: Perfect dies. May not exist with perfect obverse die.
Die State II: Obverse: A vertical crack extends from the hair .. above the forehead down to the base of the neck, extending' through the tip of hair behind the eye; through the ear lobe and along the back of the neck; the crack passes through the right edge of the center dot. No traces of this crack extend beyond the portrait into the fields. Actually, this crack appears more as a change of elevation, with the surface of the portrait to the right of the crack slightly higher than the details of the hair to the left. It is possible that this is an unusual form of internal die crack, perhaps beginning at the center dot, An . other possibility is that the portrait hub punch was cracked, and the crack was transferred to this working die. If this was the case, then the obverse of BB-15 would have been the last time this punch was used. The reverse shows no cracks, nor evidence of lapping.

-AUCTION POPULATION SURVEY: Very Good: 2, Very Fine: 7, Extremely Fine: 1. Total: 10. However, an examination of the plates reveals that at least four of these were misattributed; hence, there were no more than 6 auction appearances net. Probably some of these were also misattributed and/ or duplicate offerings of the same coin(s).