Flowing Hair Half Dollars (1794–1795)

The Mint Spelled Out the Value in Full on the Edge

Every Flowing Hair half dollar carries its value in lettering on the edge: FIFTY CENTS OR HALF A DOLLAR, an inscription the Mint kept on the half dollar until the lettered edge was dropped in 1836. The inscription states the value twice, in cents and as a fraction of the dollar, around the full circumference. The Mint Act of 1792 required an inscription of value only on the copper coins, so the half dollar's faces carry no denomination. The half dollar's counterpart in colonial commerce was the Spanish four-real piece, which Americans already knew from long use. The new half dollar had no such history. The edge lettering supplied the statement of value that the faces left out.¹

Chief Engraver Robert Scot adapted the Flowing Hair design for the half dollar from the same obverse type he had applied to the half dime and dollar that year: Liberty facing right with flowing hair, LIBERTY above, the date below, and stars running along both sides representing the current count of states in the Union. For the 1794 issue those stars numbered 15, denoting the fifteen states at the time of striking, with eight on the left side of the portrait and seven on the right. The reverse presents a small eagle within an open wreath, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA around the periphery. The eagle is the same small figure used on the contemporary dollar, perched within its wreath, and much plainer than the heraldic eagle of later coins. The law set the standard for United States silver at 89.24% silver and 10.76% copper, with the half dollar at 208 grains, but the Mint secretly struck its silver 90% fine until Director Elias Boudinot restored the legal standard late in 1795.²

1794: 23,464 Pieces in Two Deliveries, No Known Gem, One Finest Known

The official mintage for the first year of the half dollar denomination is 23,464 pieces, delivered from the Philadelphia Mint in two separate shipments. The first delivery, of 5,300 coins, occurred in late 1794; the exact date is a point of ongoing specialist debate, with Walter Breen arguing for October 15 and Robert Hilt and others placing it on December 1. A second delivery of 18,164 coins followed on February 4, 1795, struck from dies dated 1794. Production was difficult: the Mint's screw press did not bring up the designs well, so silver coinage shifted from the dollar to the smaller half dollar, and overweight planchets were filed down to legal weight before striking, leaving adjustment marks. The result is a date on which most survivors show weakness, adjustment marks, or both, and on which no coin had been certified at the Gem (Mint State 65 or finer) level by either PCGS or NGC as of the most recent available population data.³

The finest known 1794 half dollar, Overton-101a, PCGS Mint State 64 Plus with a CAC designation, carries a pedigree that passes through F.C.C. Boyd, Jimmy Hayes, Douglas Noblet, D. Brent Pogue, Bob R. Simpson, and Jim O'Neal, a succession of the most significant early United States coinage collections of the 20th and 21st centuries. It sold most recently at Heritage Auctions, Jim O'Neal Collection of U.S. Half Dollar Types, January 12, 2023, lot 3698, for $1,800,000. The price rested on condition, since no other known 1794 half approaches this coin, and on a pedigree that runs through the collections named above. Only a handful of 1794 half dollars grade Mint State at all; PCGS has recorded three examples in Mint State and three in About Uncirculated 58, figures that are a ceiling rather than a count of coins.⁴

1795: The Production Finds Its Pace, and the Varieties Follow

Approximately 299,680 half dollars were struck with 1795-dated dies, producing a date roughly ten times more common than the 1794. The Mint's output grew quickly in its first two years, and for a type collector the gap is practical: a problem-free 1795 in Very Fine costs a fraction of what the most available 1794 costs at that same grade level. Unlike the 1794, the 1795 reaches the Gem level, and the D. Brent Pogue Collection included a PCGS Mint State 65 example (O-117, Two Leaves) tied for finest known. Stack's Bowers Galleries sold a PCGS Mint State 64 example (O-119, T-1, Two Leaves, Rarity-3) at their August 13, 2024 Global Showcase Rarities Night auction for $240,000, a record price for that grade.⁵

The standard reverse design for 1795 half dollars shows two leaves below the eagle's wings on the reverse. A scarce variant exists on which three leaves appear under each wing; this variety is considerably harder to locate and carries a premium reflecting its documented scarcity. Additional 1795 varieties involve a recut date and a Small Head obverse distinguishable from the Regular Head type. Overton and Parsley catalogued 32 die marriages for 1795, and a 33rd, O-133, was attributed in 2020, giving specialists a substantial framework for pursuing the year by die marriage rather than simply by date.⁶

The Overton Reference and the Variety Collecting Framework

The controlling specialist reference for Flowing Hair half dollars and for the entire early half dollar series through 1836 is Al C. Overton's Early Half Dollar Die Varieties 1794-1836, continued by Donald L. Parsley as United States Early Half Dollar Die Varieties 1794-1836. Every serious early half dollar transaction references an Overton number. The varieties catalogued for 1794 run to eleven die marriages; those for 1795 extend to 33. Rarity ratings in the Overton system use a scale from R1 (common, 1,250 or more known) to R8 (unique or nearly so, 1 to 3 known). Rarity-3 denotes approximately 201 to 500 known examples; Rarity-4 denotes 76 to 200. The most accessible 1794 varieties, including the O-101a, rate Rarity-3 or Rarity-3 Plus, while the rarest are O-110 at Rarity-7, with about a dozen known, and O-109 and O-111 at Rarity-8, each unique in silver as of 2020. Collectors entering the series should have Overton before purchasing any example above circulated grades, and the pedigree of any significant coin should be traceable through major auction appearances.⁷

Building the Set

A type set requires one coin: a problem-free example of the Flowing Hair design in any grade, from either year. A 1795 in Very Fine or Extremely Fine satisfies this goal. Any 1794 at the same grade level commands a substantial premium over a comparable 1795, owing to the date's ten-times-lower survival and its status as the first year of the half dollar. Pursuing both dates in comparable grades is the common approach for collectors who want the full two-year span without assembling a complete Overton variety set, which represents one of the deepest collecting programs in early United States silver.