1795 $1 Draped Bust, Off-Center MS(PCGS#96858)

November 2025 Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

2102

Grade

AU58

Price

93,000

Lot Description

This piece is immensely desirable, appealing to both type collectors and advanced early dollar specialists. The surfaces are choice, retaining much softly frosted luster. Liberty's portrait on the obverse is sharply defined, showing crisp hair and profile detail and just the lightest friction across the high points. The eagle's breast and legs are slightly soft, as is typical, though most of the feathers and the entire wreath are sharp and intricate. The planchet is exceptional with none of the (heavy) adjustment marks often associated with the BB-51 attribution. The complexion is predominantly smooth and without detractions of any sort, displaying immensely strong eye appeal and pearlescent golden-apricot iridescence. Rare CAC approval for a Draped Bust, Small Eagle dollar at the certified AU-58 grade level confirms the truly superior merits of this jewel.<p>Two different die combinations were used for the 1795 Draped Bust dollar. The die pair believed to have been struck first is the so-called Off-Center Bust variety, BB-51, which features Liberty appearing too far to the left from the center, a position used only on this die pair. This positioning was corrected to a more aesthetically pleasing centered location on the second variety, the BB-52 pair. The precise number struck and timing of each variety is unclear. Mint records from the time are not as thorough as scholars would like and much of what can be determined is conjecture. The commonly cited mintage figure of 42,738 is believed to be only a portion of the overall total for the 1795 Draped Bust dollar. The best estimate on the number of 1795 Draped Bust silver dollars struck is that of 83,178 pieces put forth by Harry E. Salyards in his outstanding reference <em>Eagle Poised on a Bank of Clouds: The United States Silver Dollars of 1795-1798</em> (2022). Most of these coins - 78,238 pieces - were delivered in October 1795, the first month of coinage from Scot's newly completed Draped Bust dies. No additional dollars were delivered for three months in response to Mint Director Boudinot's policy of emphasizing fractional silver and copper coinage. The first two deliveries of 1796 amounted to 4,550 coins on January 30 and 390 coins on February 13, 1796, which totals numismatic scholars traditionally assign to 1795-dated dies, thereby rounding out Salyard's estimated mintage. Since the seven weeks that elapsed before the next dollar delivery on March 30 provided sufficient time for the Mint to prepare the first 1796-dated dies, it is generally assumed that delivery of 1796 Draped Bust dollars commenced on that date. This is just that, an assumption, and it is entirely possible that additional 1795-dated coins were delivered on March 30, 1796, or even later. With this possibility in mind, Q. David Bowers (2013) provides a more liberal and approximate estimate of 100,000 coins struck for the 1795 Draped Bust silver dollar.<p>BB-51 is the more plentiful of the two die marriages of this issue, and Bowers suggests that 1,400 to 2,000 coins are extant in all grades, although Salyards takes a more conservative view with perhaps 725 to 1,200 known. With the typical survivor grading VF, in any case, even EF and AU coins are scarce in an absolute sense, and rare relative to the demand for them in today's numismatic hobby.