1795 $1 Draped Bust Silver Dollar, Centered Bust, PCGS XF45

This offering from AUCM represents the initial year of the short-lived Draped Bust/Small Eagle series struck from 1795 to 1798. Of the "Centered Bust" variety, PCGS has graded 49 as XF45, with 86 finer. Collectors Universe gives this variety a price of $14,000.00 in XF45.

The "Centered Bust" refers to the location of the Liberty bust within the field of the die. The other variety for 1795 is the "Off-Center Bust." Please see the photos below for a comparison. Ron Guth writes in PCGS Coinfacts, "The difference between the two can be seen best on the position of the bow behind Liberty's head. On the Centered Bust, the bow is well away from the stars..." The denomination is displayed on the lettered edge: "HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT."

Obverse comparison of 1795 Draped Bust dollar CENTERED/OFF-CENTER BUST. Photo: PCGS Coinfacts.

This piece is rare. Out of its total mintage of 42,738, there are an estimated 1,400 examples available to collectors. What happed to the rest of them? The 1795 silver dollars contained less silver than the ubiquitous Spanish-American 8 Reales. The Draped Bust U.S. silver dollar had 371.25 grains of silver, while full-bodied Spanish dollars had around 377.25 grains.

Even though the U.S. coin was lighter, in the West Indies the U.S. dollar and the Spanish dollar traded at par. Therefore it was beneficial for merchants to partake in a repeated cycle of exchange arbitrage. They shipped American silver dollars to the West Indies to trade them for Spanish dollars. In that manner the U.S. silver dollars essentially disappeared from circulation. The vast majority of those U.S. dollars coins ended up in the China trade, where they were chopmarked, discounted and melted into Chinese bullion called sycee.