Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States - A Complete Encyclopedia
Q. David Bowers
Pattern and Regular Dies of 1794
1794 pattern silver dollar, Judd-18, struck in copper, lettered edge, unique. The obverse die, without stars, was never used for regular coinage. The position of the lettering and date with relation to the denticles and portrait is slightly different than on the regular issue (illustrated below), indicating that the regular issue was not made by simply adding stars to the die shown above. Note also differences in the lowest hair curl. On the pattern obverse, Miss Liberty seems to have a rosy "apple cheek." The reverse is the same as used on regular silver coinage.
Regular 1794 silver dollar , BB-1, struck in silver. This particular piece is typical inasmuch as it is finely detailed at the center of the obverse, but along the left border is somewhat flat due to non-parallel alignment of the die faces. Note that on the right side of the coin each of the seven stars has two points toward the border, the only year in which this was done; all later dollars have a single point toward the border as, indeed, does the manner of the eight stars on the left side of the 1794 shown here. Note that the Head of 1794 (a general style also used early in 1795) has no loop at the neck truncation, and has a slight "pinch" about halfway along the truncation line. Other differences can be noted in the-hair.