Throughout history civilization has used coins in one form or another to assist in the trading of food, resources and other goods. Coins have been produced in various different sizes, shapes, colors, materials and designs and each one of them is collectable to some collectors. Possibly some of the most popular forms of old coins though are the silver coins and, in particular, a great many coin collectors strive to have the best possible collection of sterling silver dollars. The American silver dollar really is one of the most collectable forms of any coin new or old.
A History of the Silver Dollar
Large finds of silver in Germany and other parts of Europe in the 15th century meant that there was suddenly a very large amount of silver in the marketplace and these were subsequently struck into dollars, however, it really wasn't until the Continental dollar was created in 1776 out of a mix of pewter, silver and brass that the history of the American silver coin was really born. 1972 saw the first coinage act and the creation of the first mint in America, and two years later in 1974 the first truly American silver coin was created.
The Flowing Hair Silver Dollar
The Flowing Hair silver dollar was the first silver coin to be created from an American mint and was minted between 1794 and 1795. There were some serious difficulties in producing these first silver dollars; the prints struggled to make truly uniform coins with dents and abrasions and the Spanish silver dollar that was already widely used in America was actually worth slightly more because of it's weight and purity of silver. The first American silver coin was actually offered at a discounted face value. Without this unusual step it would not have been used by commerce.
Silver dollar eclipsed creation of any other silver coin
1795 saw the introduction of both a new press for minting the coins and also the new draped bust design for the coins themselves. The draped bust designs were a far superior coin to their predecessors and while small anomalies did still exist they appeared to be generally much better condition than their predecessors. 1797 saw less than 100,000 silver dollars being created and only in 1798 when the bank of North America handed over $30,000 worth of French money with the strict instructions that silver dollars should be created from this money and then passed back to the bank. The public would not benefit from this mint but it did increase the number of silver dollars minted to 300,000. 1799 saw the creation of the silver dollar for public use hit a much healthier note with 425,000 being created. In this year no other silver coin was created, only the silver dollar.
A silver coin that didn't appear to be silver
Due to serious outbreaks of yellow fever in the area of Philadelphia and the inconsistency of mint production not all of the silver dollars actually appeared particularly silvery. In fact, dyes were used as and when they were received and often these dyes were different colors. This resulted in silver dollars being created in different shades of gray and silver. From 1800 onwards the mint tried to encourage silver depositors to order silver coins apart from the silver dollar and at first there was very little known success but eventually the half dollar came into regular production in 1802. Around this time the silver dollar coin was actually taken out of production and wouldn't be minted again until the 1830s.
Your silver coin collection
Because different silver depositors often requested different designs on the coins they received in return for their bullion there were several different designs produced in each year, some rarer than others. This large number of designs and often small amount of production means there are some very collectible silver coins from this era. The challenge is to find ones that weren't damaged during the printing and are still in mint condition now and this really is a challenge.
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