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Coins/ Dollars / Early Dollars/ 1797

FINENESS .8924ASW 0.77344 OZT26.96 G

Overview History First Mint Die Marriages Key Dates 1804 Dollar Collecting Grading Checklist References

Issue RecordSCARCEPhiladelphia89.24% Silver1 of 15 issues

1797 Draped Bust, Small Eagle Dollar

The lowest delivery figure of any regular-issue year in the series, and lower than most collectors expect. It is also the series' loudest arithmetic anomaly: a delivery of 7,776 against PCGS survival estimates totalling roughly 3,000 across the varieties implies a survival rate near 40%, against 2–3% for 1798–1803. Either 1797 dollars were saved at an extraordinary rate, or 7,776 is not the number of coins dated 1797 — and the second explanation is the likelier one.

1797 early dollars — obverse and reverse

The numbers, and what kind of numbers they are

Every figure carries its evidence class. Press a class to open the record behind it — what it rests on, by what method, and what the series says you should not conclude from it.

RECORDED DELIVERY

7,776

The Mint recorded what the Chief Coiner DELIVERED in a calendar year, not what it struck bearing a date. Where the registry combines years, the split is a reconstruction and the class says so.

DATED ATTRIBUTION

7,776

What the trade assigns to coins bearing this date. A modern allocation by an outside authority, not a federal record.

ESTIMATED SURVIVORS

—

No STRUCTURED census exists for this series yet — not because none has been published, but because the published estimates live in the key-date prose and were never carried as figures with their own attribution and date. Retyping them here would be authoring data from downstream text, so the slot stays empty until the research leg structures them.

DIE MARRIAGES

How many obverse/reverse die pairings are catalogued for this issue. A marriage is a distinct pair of hand-cut dies, which is what makes these coins collectable by variety rather than by date alone.

What the record asserts

The figures above are measurements. This is the proposition they support, in the Archive's own claim vocabulary — a different scale from the figure classes, because a claim can be probable where the number behind it is exact.

CLAIMThe ratio of estimated surviving 1797-dated dollars to the Mint's 1797 delivery figure of 7,776 is roughly an order of magnitude higher than the equivalent ratio for 1798-1803, which is better explained by the delivery figure not matching the dated output than by exceptional preservation.

STATUSPROBABLE — the Archive's assessment of the proposition, not of the arithmetic.

CLAIM IDearly-dollars-1797-survival-anomaly

Specifications

SpecificationValue

DENOMINATIONDollar

DESIGNERRobert Scot

COMPOSITION89.24% silver, 10.76% copper — 371¼ grains of pure silver in 416 grains of standard silver

WEIGHT26.96 g

SILVER CONTENT0.77344 ozt

DIAMETERNot fixed by statute. The Act of April 2, 1792 specifies the dollar's weight and fineness and says nothing about its diameter; surviving coins run to roughly 39–40 mm.

EDGELettered — HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT

MINTPhiladelphia only — the first and, until 1838, the sole United States mint

MINT MARKNone. No branch mint existed, so no early dollar carries a mint mark.

DIE MARRIAGES9×7 and 10×6 stars, Large and Small Letters

From the book

Chapters that cite a document this coin's figures rest on. The same source id, reached from the other direction.

CHAPTER ONEThe First Silver
A shop with horses, a statute about to expire, and 1,758 coins on an October afternoon — where every early dollar comes from.CHAPTER TWOThe Carousel
Accepted by count, exported by the crate: the banker's habit that consumed ninety-seven percent of the series.CHAPTER FOURTwelve Marriages
A teaching set, ranked by lesson rather than price: attribute these twelve and you can attribute the series.CHAPTER FIVEThe Ledger and the Date
The Mint counted deliveries, never dates — and confusing the two columns manufactured the most famous coin in America.CHAPTER NINECollecting the Series
What a completable set means in a series whose best coins live in museums — three honest paths, and two habits of numerical hygiene.

The primary record

Every document behind the figures above. Where OunceDesk holds a copy, the row opens it.

Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, FY1888
Held in the Archive · behind recorded delivery

PCGS CoinFacts
External authority — not held by OunceDesk · behind dated attribution

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Hard Money. Hard Numbers. · Not investment advice. Some links pay us a commission — disclosures. Affiliate economics never determine research conclusions or rankings. © 2026 OunceDesk. Every figure classed OBSERVED / DERIVED / ESTIMATED / SPECULATIVE.