Rare 1794 dollar in Stack’s Bowers sale

Taken to England in 1795 by a British visitor to the early federal United States, this 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar will go on the auction block of Stack’s Bowers at the August American Numismatic Association convention in Denver.

One of the finest known 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollars has been consigned to Stack’s Bowers for the firm’s American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money Auction in early August in Denver.

The coin was once a part of the famous Norweb Collection that was sold in parts in 1987 and 1988. The silver dollar went on the block in November 1988 and realized $242,000. The coin originally had been saved as one of two when it was a new issue by a English gentleman farmer touring the United States.

This, the Lord St. Oswald-Norweb specimen is graded MS-64 by the Professional Coin Grading Service. The other coin of the pair, the Lord St. Oswald-Ostheimer piece was graded MS-66+ by PCGS. It sold two years ago for $4,993,750 in the second part of the D. Brent Pogue Collection offering in May 2015.

Stack’s Bowers tells the story of the famous dollar this way:

“These two 1794 silver dollars remained together for the first 170 years of their existence, until they were offered as part of the Lord St. Oswald cabinet by Christie’s in 1964. The pair had been obtained by English gentleman farmer William Strickland on his tour of the young United States from Sept. 20, 1794, to July 29, 1795. During his visit, Strickland journeyed throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic, even meeting with Thomas Jefferson at Monticello and with then-President George Washington at Mount Vernon. The two 1794 silver dollars were among a diverse group of 84 federal and pre-federal coins gathered during his 10 months in America. Centuries later, those two souvenirs would immortalize the legacy of William Strickland and his descendants through the Lord St. Oswald provenance.

“The near-Gem Lord St. Oswald-Norweb specimen is among the finest survivors of America’s first silver dollar coinage and is one of the great treasures of U.S. numismatics. The surfaces are impeccably preserved and lustrous, with just gentle traces of planchet adjustment at the obverse border. The coin exhibits strong peripheral definition for the issue, with considerable pronouncement to the left obverse stars and corresponding legend on the reverse. Ranked as fourth finest in the Condition Census and third finest among Mint State examples seen by PCGS, this is a significant world-class rarity.

“Over the years, Stack’s Bowers Galleries has handled the very finest 1794 dollars extant, including having sold every known Mint State example at least once over the past three decades. The Specimen-66 (PCGS) Carter-Cardinal-Morelan 1794 silver dollar, sold by the firm in January 2013, set the record for the highest auction price realized for any coin at over $10 million. Stack’s Bowers Galleries is pleased to once again have the opportunity to present the Lord St. Oswald-Norweb specimen.”

Visit www.StacksBowers.com for more details.