COIN HISTORY

The 1794 Silver Dollar is one of the most iconic coins in U.S. numismatics, and in fact in the history of money. The coin was sold in 1945 for just a little over USD 1000, and resold at auction two years later for USD 1250. On 24th January 2013 this coin – the finest known example of the 1794 Silver Dollar – sold for $10,016,875. This auction achieved a world record price!

All of the first silver dollars were struck within one day, October 15, 1794. On that day a total of 1,758 silver dollars were minted. They were all struck on a hand-turned screw press at the Philadelphia Mint. These seminal silver coins were graced by the figure of Liberty, adorned with flowing hair, and surrounded by fifteen stars - representing the fifteen states of the United States of America. The obverse denoted an impression of Liberty, representing the right upon which the new nation was founded - freedom, and was a design that was specified by the law. The reverse featured an eagle encircled by a wreath, and the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The written-out denomination was placed on the edge: HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT. The unique quality of this 1794-dollar suggests that it was the very first to be struck, meaning that the dies that were used to strike the coin were in mint condition.

Robert Scot, engraver for the United States Mint from 1793, made the design for the first silver dollar, the 'Flowing Hair' which was used from 1794-95. The design was modelled upon a French medal, created by the French engraver Augustin Dupre in 1782. Established by the Coinage Act of 1792, Philadelphia was the first mint to be opened in the United States. As it was the nation’s capital at the time, it made sense that the mint facility should be located there.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

“In Congress, 4th July 1776. A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed a resolution to the Continental Congress, sitting on that day in the Statehouse in Philadelphia, “that these United Colonies are, and of right, ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.” Lee’s motion was seconded by John Adams of Massachusetts; consideration of the motion was postponed.

Meanwhile, in view of the foregone conclusion that independence would ultimately be voted, the Congress decided to appoint a committee to draft a declaration to this effect, and on June 11 five members of the Congress – Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Robert R. Livingston of New York – were appointed to undertake the specific task.

Jefferson was chosen to write the Declaration, in recognition of his (in John Adam’s words) “peculiar felicity of expression.” Jefferson’s extensively reworked Rough Draft of the Declaration, as it is commonly known, is preserved in the Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress. In addition to Lee’s resolution, Jefferson drew heavily on two other fundamental sources for his text: George Mason’s bill of rights, adopted by Virginia on 12 June 1776, and his own draft of a proposed constitution for Virginia. Jefferson felt great satisfaction for the rest of his life in having been privileged to serve as chief author of this greatest of American documents. Shortly before his death, Jefferson wrote to Richard Henry Lee, responding to the remarks of John Adams and to others that the Declaration only stated what everyone at the time believed. He had been concerned, he wrote, “not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent… it was intended to be an expression of the American Mind.”

As is evident from their annotations on the Rough Draft, Adams and Franklin read and commented on Jefferson’s version, making relatively small changes. There is no direct evidence of revision from the hands of Sherman and Livingston. A (now-lost) fair copy, incorporating the committee’s changes, was submitted to the full body of the Continental Congress, which debated it for three days before approving it unanimously on 4 July 1776, two days after Lee’s resolution of independence was voted.

During the next few weeks, the Declaration would be re-published throughout the country in locally-printed broadsides—both official and unofficial—and newspapers. The July 1776 Boston broadside on display is one of those original copies. When the Declaration was read aloud it was followed by huzzahs, thirteen-gun salutes, parades, toasts, and often times, boisterous mobs that committed monarchial symbols to the bonfire. For instance, in New York after Washington’s copy of the Dunlap was read before the American army on July 9th, a mob pulled down the lead statue of George III in Bowling Green. The king and his horse were transported to Connecticut and cast into 42,088 musket balls for the American cause.