1795 $1 Flowing Hair, Silver Plug MS(PCGS#6854)

November 2025 Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auktionator

Stack's Bowers

Losnummer

2100

Erhaltungsgrad

VF25

Preis

18.000

Losbeschreibung

BB Die State I. Eagerly sought by advanced early dollar collectors in today's market, the intriguing silver plug Flowing Hair silver dollars of 1795 eluded numismatic attention for nearly 200 years after they were produced. Neither John W. Haseltine nor M.H. Bolender identified these pieces, and it was not until the early 1990s that numismatic scholars began to seriously study the silver plug feature with a view toward proper attribution and classification.<p>What the market has discerned since then - much of which, it must be remembered, is theory, as there is no contemporary documentation explaining this feature - is that somewhere between 30 and 100 examples of the 1795 Flowing Hair silver dollar were struck on planchets into which a tiny silver dowel, or plug, was inserted prior to striking. A simple piercing would have sufficed to hold the plug in place until the force of striking impressed it into the surface of the coin. The insertion of the plug seems to have been an experiment, conducted almost exclusively on 1795-dated silver dollars, with the goal of bringing lightweight planchets up to the mandated standard and, hence, enabling them to be used in coinage. Although the plug remains clearly visible after striking, metallurgical analysis of at least one example has confirmed that the silver fineness and trace metals are virtually identical for both the plug and the remainder of the planchet.<p>To date, numismatists have identified only five die marriages of the 1795 Flowing Hair silver dollar for which silver plug examples are known: B-1, B-3, B-4, B-7 and B-9. (A listing for a B-5 example with a silver plug in the <em>PCGS Population Report</em> is an error - we have seen that coin and, in consultation with early dollar specialists, have confirmed that it is misattributed as having a silver plug.<p>This is the first B-3 dollar with a silver plug that we have had the privilege of bringing to auction since 2007. A warmly and evenly toned mid grade example, the surfaces are awash in blended steel gray and charcoal-russet. Underlying glossiness suggests an old cleaning, but few marks are seen, none of which require individual attention. The strike is generally well centered and universally bold with sharper detail remaining in the recesses of the major design elements. Regarding the all-important plug, its outline is easiest to discern at the top of Liberty's neck as well as at and before the ear on the obverse, on the reverse within the eagle's left wing. Visually appealing and of great historic and numismatic significance, this coin is sure to have no difficulty finding its way into another advanced collection.