A 1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar, sold at auction “raw” as Gem Brilliant Uncirculated by Stack’s in 1995, has now been closely examined by experts at CAC Grading (CACG) who certified it as Mint State 67.
According to CACG, it is the finest known surviving example from the first year the United States Mint struck dollar coins for circulation. Now insured for $15 million by its long-time owner, the coin may make its first public appearance in 30 years during 2025.
In 2010, the coin was graded by PCGS as MS66+ and later given a CAC sticker of approval.
“I’ve been kicking myself ever since it received only a green CAC approval sticker rather than a gold sticker. I can certainly understand an eight-figure valuation in this market,” said CACG founder John Albanese.
With a pedigree dating back to the 1920s with famous collector Col. E.H.R. Green and later mid-century legendary type set collector Lelan Rogers, the 1794 dollar was purchased at the 1995 auction by dealer Jay Parrino for $577,500. Parrino and his partner Mike Phillips sold it in 1996 to dealer Chris Napolitano for his client, a collector in Georgia who still owns it and wants to remain anonymous under the set registry name “Stellar”.
“The Lelan Rogers 1794 dollar is the absolute best 1794 dollar; the best 1794 dollar in existence,” stated Phillips.
The coin was recently submitted to CAC for crossover where a coin is removed from another third-party certification service’s sealed holder, examined, and, if appropriate, certified and encapsulated by another service.
Napolitano said his customer “was certainly happy about the results” and had expected CAC to grade the coin MS67.
“It validated what he felt about the dollar over all these years. Since I first saw this coin at Stack’s in 1995, I felt it was one of the most important U.S. coins in existence. In fact, at the time, I said that if I could own only one U.S. coin, this would be the one. That still holds true today,”? Napolitano stated.
“My client has never publicly displayed the coin during the nearly 30 years he has owned it. We know there’s a whole generation of numismatists who have never had the opportunity to view the coin. In fact, many may not be aware of its existence at all. We don’t have any specific dates or venues to announce at this time, but we will discuss the possibility of displaying the coin in the future,” he revealed.
The 1995 Stack’s auction description of the coin stated:
1794 Bolender 1. Gem Brilliant Uncirculated. 416.1 grains. A gorgeous toned satin gem coin. Both sides are toned a lovely, deep coin silver gray with iridescent champagne and palest iridescent blue around the rims. The fields are fully lustrous and satiny, the frost virtually unmarred by signs of handling. One has to wonder how such a big and heavy coin could have survived for 200 years with such satiny surfaces intact.
According to U.S. Mint records, Chief Coiner Henry Voigt delivered a total of 1,758 silver dollars to Mint Director David Rittenhouse on October 15, 1794. That was the total mintage of 1794-dated Flowing Hair Dollars released for the year.
“Less than 150 1794 silver dollars are known to exist today, and only a handful are certified Mint State. The Lelan Rogers coin owned for decades by a Georgia collector and now graded CACG MS67 is the finest known,” said CAC Grading President Ron Drzewucki.
Several leading early American federal coinage experts who spoke with CAC Grading about the finest known 1794 dollar unanimously agreed, including Joe O’Connor.
“When we all first saw the Lelan Rogers 1794 dollar almost 30 years ago, it was clear then that this was not only one of the finest examples of the Flowing Hair Dollar type, but also likely the finest 1794. Three decades later, our collective opinion has not changed,” O’Connor declared.
Albanese and two dozen veteran numismatists founded Certified Acceptance Corporation (CAC) in 2007 to provide buyers and sellers verification that their coins certified by third-party grading services met stringent standards. In 2022, he along with Ron Drzewucki organized over 150 leading members of the numismatic community to expand their mission for accuracy and consistency by creating a new third-party grading and encapsulation service, CAC Grading, that was launched in 2023.
For additional information about CAC Grading, visit www.CACgrading.com, email [email protected], or call 888-537-3798.
* * *