A 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar graded and encapsulated Very Fine 35 by Professional Coin Grading Service realized $312,000 in the Feb. 3 auction by Stack’s Bowers Galleries of selections from the Dean Oakes Family Collection.

 The price realized for each lot includes the 20% buyer’s fee add to the closing hammer price for each lot won. Prices realized for the 93-lot collection totaled $1,569,252.

The Stack’s Bowers auction’s lot 25078 is an example of the BB-1 variety as cataloged in Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States — A Complete Encyclopedia, by Q. David Bowers, edited by Mark Borckardt. This Bushnell-Parmelee-Reed-Freedom-Dean Oakes example of 1794 dollar was first sold at auction in 1882 as part of celebrated collection of renowned numismatist Charles Ira Bushnell. The coin is from a Philadelphia Mint issue of just 1,758 coins.

The 1794 dollar is ranked number 3 in the fifth edition of 100 Greatest U.S. Coins co-authored by numismatists Jeff Garrett and Ron Guth.

The auction lot description provides the coin’s design genesis: “The design of the nation’s first silver dollar was entrusted to Chief Engraver Robert Scot, whose obverse features the most mature evolution of the Flowing Hair Liberty portrait that had been featured first on Augustin Dupre’s Libertas Americana medal of 1783.

“By the time Dupre’s Liberty found her way onto the silver dollar, however, she had been turned to the right and no longer displayed the liberty pole and cap. The basic design is superficially similar to its earliest inception, nonetheless, with Liberty’s hair free flowing along the back of her head and neck, thus explaining the widely used name.

“Scot’s dollar obverse also exhibits 15 stars around the border arranged eight left, seven right, in honor of the number of states that made up the Union in 1794. The word LIBERTY is at the upper border, and the date 1794 is at the lower.

“The reverse of the Flowing Hair silver dollar mirrors Scot’s work for the Flowing Hair half dime and half dollar,” the lot description reads.

Other selections in the Dean Oakes Family Collection offering included:
* 1793 Flowing Hair, Chain, AMERI. cent, Sheldon 1 as attributed in Penny Whimsy by William H. Sheldon, graded by PCGS as Extremely Fine 40, stickered by Certified Acceptance Corp. Price realized: $180,000.
* 1895 Morgan dollar, certified Proof 63 by Numismatic Guaranty Co., Philadelphia Mint records indicate 12,000 Proof coins were struck, with no business strikes recorded. Pprice realized: $84,000.
* Kellogg & Humbert gold assay bar, or ingot, recovered from the Sept. 12, 1857, shipwreck of the SS Central America,  one of 342 such examples from the assaying firm aboard the steamship. The San Francisco firm of Kellogg & Humbert was established in 1855 as the product of several mergers between prominent regional gold firms. This bar was plated in A California Gold Rush History, by Q. David Bowers. Price realized: $276,000
* 1799 Draped Bust cent, S-189, PCGS Fine 15. Price realized: $24,000.
* 1848 Coronet cent, Newcomb 42 as listed in United States Copper Cents by Howard R.Newcomb, but struck 20% off center. NGC EF Details-Damaged. Price realized: $1,320.
* 1802 Draped Bust half dime, LM-1 in Federal Half Dimes, 1792–1837 by Russell J. Logan and John W. McCloskey, PCGS Very Good Details-Damage. Price realized: $66,000.
* 1916-D Winged Liberty Head dime, PCGS VG-10, CAC. Price realized: $45,600.
* 1796 Draped Bust quarter dollar, Browning-1, Early Quarter Dollars of the United States 1796-1838 by Glenn Peterson, Bradley S. Karoleff, John J. Kovach Jr. and Rory R. Rea, extensive update based on earlier reference of the same name by Ard W. Browning. PCGS VF-20. Price realized: $1,200.
* 1896-S Barber quarter dollar, NGC VG-8. Price realized: $5,760.
* 1901-S Barber quarter dollar, NGC Good-4. Price realized: $156,000.
* 1794 Flowing Hair half dollar, Overton 101 in Early Half Dollar Die Varieties by Al C. Overton. NGC Mint State 61. Price realized: $52,800.
* 1796 Draped Bust, Small Eagle, 16 Stars half dollar, O-102, the Garrett specimen, off the market since 1979. Price realized: $90,000.
* 1797 Draped Bust, Small Eagle, 15 Stars Reverse half dollar. O-101a, PCGS Fine 15, CAC, provenance from the Dean Oakes Family Collection, earlier from S.H. Chapman’s sale of the Major Richard Lambert Collection, October 1910. Price realized: $48,000.
* Undated circa 1943 Walking Liberty half dollar struck on a zinc-coated steel cent planchet, third confirmed example, ranked #8 in the 100 Greatest U.S. Error Coins by Nicholas P. Brown, David J. Camire and Fred Weinberg, PCGS MS-62. Price realized: $10,200.

Connect with Coin World:  
Sign up for our free eNewsletter
Access our Dealer Directory  
Like us on Facebook  
Follow us on X (Twitter)

Whether you’re a current subscriber or new, you can take advantage of the best offers on magazine subscriptions available in digital, print or both! Whether you want your issue every week or every month, there’s a subscription to meet your needs.