1794 Dollar Pattern - J-18

Coin Details

Auction Record

$840,000 • VF25 PCGS • 04-2017 • Heritage Auctions (Bob Simpson Collection)

Description

Judd-18 is among the most historically significant pattern coins in American numismatics, widely considered the first dollar-denomination coin struck at the United States Mint. The obverse features Robert Scot's Flowing Hair portrait of Liberty with LIBERTY above and the date 1794 below, but critically, this die lacks the stars that appear on regular-issue 1794 silver dollars. Andrew W. Pollock III demonstrated that this is not merely an incomplete die with stars yet to be added, but an entirely different obverse die never used for circulation coinage. The digits 1 and 7 are spaced noticeably further apart, and 94 closer together, than on circulation strikes. The reverse is the adopted Small Eagle design with an eagle standing on a rock within a wreath and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA around the border. Struck in copper to test the dies before committing to silver, this coin represents the earliest tangible step in the Mint's production of America's first silver dollars.

Rarity Notes

Unique (R.8). Only one specimen is known to exist.

Cross References

Pollock-27