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Coins/ Half Dollars / Early Half Dollars/ 1794

FINENESS .8924ASW 0.38672 OZT13.48 G

Overview History Die Marriages Key Dates Collecting Grading Checklist References

Issue RecordKEY DATEPhiladelphia89.24% Silver1 of 39 issues

1794 Flowing Hair Half Dollar

The Mint's second silver delivery ever, on December 1, 1794, and the softest number in the series: the published 23,464 is a date-attribution estimate, not a delivery figure. PCGS estimates 1,200 known at R-4.9, auction record $252,000. The condition-census head is an MS64 ex F.C.C. Boyd that sold for $210 in 1945 and $763,750 in 2015. One hoard is reported to have held 150 of them.

1794 early half 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

5,300

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

23,464

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

ESTIMATED SURVIVORS

1,200

An estimate of how many still exist in any grade, not a count of coins anyone has seen. Thirteen of this series' thirty-nine issues carry no census at all and show none.

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 Mint delivered 5,300 half dollars on 1 December 1794 - the entire half-dollar coinage of calendar 1794 - not the 23,464 pieces carried as the 1794 mintage in the modern trade literature.

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

CLAIM IDearly-halves-1794-delivery-5300

Specifications

SpecificationValue

DENOMINATIONHalf Dollar

DESIGNERRobert Scot (Flowing Hair and Heraldic Eagle) · Robert Scot with John Eckstein (Draped Bust) · John Reich (Capped Bust)

COMPOSITION89.24% silver, 10.76% copper — 185⅝ grains of pure silver in 208 grains of standard silver

WEIGHT13.48 g

SILVER CONTENT0.38672 ozt

DIAMETERNot fixed by statute. The Act of April 2, 1792 specifies weight and fineness and says nothing about diameter; surviving coins run to roughly 32–33 mm.

EDGELettered — FIFTY CENTS OR HALF A DOLLAR

MINTPhiladelphia only — no branch mint existed until 1838

MINT MARKNone. No early half dollar carries a mint mark.

DIE MARRIAGES11 (O-101 to O-111, several with die states)

The primary record

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

A Description of Ancient and Modern Coins in the Cabinet Collection at the Mint of the United States (1860)
Held in the Archive · behind recorded delivery

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

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