Endgame

And yes, my phrase die trial for St.Oswald dollars was incorrect. I meant the SP66 was a predecessor for the St. Oswald silver plug dollars.

I split Martin's die state 3 into 2 parts. The first part are the 15 coins (including his former ms64) that show weak US letters. I believe they minted 1758 silver dollars like that and only a small quantity were released. Rittenhouse was forced to sit on them as releasing them would have been embarrassing to the government. Then the proper machinery arrived in mid-1795, they strike Martin's die state 1 and then for whatever reason change back to the original 1794 dies. That explains why there are silver plugs in two different on two different die states. There is no documentation supporting a silver plug in 1794. All of the silver plug activity took place in 1795. We have to remember that authors are creative. Edmund Randolph's one liner describes a neat and simple coin for the President and I do not believe the heavily adjusted silver plug matches that.

In last week's comments RWB and Kbb correctly pushed me for facts. Here they are: 1 There were no more 1794 silver dollars paid out on warrants after October 15, 1794. 2 There is no 1794 silver dollar in President Washington's Last Will and Testament. 3 There are at least 3 1794 silver plug silver dollars. 4 The 1795 silver plug silver dollar proves Strickland was at the mint in June 1795. 5 The Columbian Centinel describes a weakly struck coin. 6 Reports of circulating 1794 dollars did not appear until late 1795. I want to correct one part of last week's comments. The main varieties are: B-1 Original, no silver plug, weak US letters B-2 Restrikes, silver plug and no silver plug, strong US letters I feel positive that aditional new research will confirm the direction that has been laid out. The criticism would have been withering if they had released a quantity of defective originals. The Mint was already on a short string with Alexander Hamilton. A whole new die state order is required for 1794 Silver Dollars and I hope someone will take up the task.

The proper die state order would put die state 3 first followed by die state 1 and the 2. I've explained that I believe the silver plug dollars were minted on the silver dollar press in 1795.

The die state order may change similar to what recently happened with chain cents. Previous research featured obverse differences but I think the reverse explains the timing better. The missing features on the reverse lettering most likely prohibited Rittenhouse from using most of that first mintage as the words United States did not strike up completely. Evidence from the Logies' book reveals that the majority of distinguishable images have silver plugs...very few originals, by my definitions. So yes, there is so much more to learn.

Final thoughts on the matter. Instead of a festive event portrayed in many books, the original coining of 1794 silver dollars was a disaster. All of a sudden Mint Director Rittenhouse was stuck with over 1700 defective silver dollars than could not be distributed to the states because the words United States were missing the tops of too many letters. After all, a half dollar is 80% of the size of a silver dollar and miracles do not occur during the minting process. However the problems were resolved by the middle of the following year with the silver dollar coin press. The two varieties of 1794 silver dollars are: B-1 no silver plug, weak US letters B-2 silver plug, strong US letters It is also clear that Mint Director melted a substantial number of defective original 1794 dollars and the metal was used to produce B-2 coins, as evidenced by the high number of silvers plug dollars in the survivor pool. I was incorrect on two points in my previous posts: there are no 1795 silver plug half dollars and the survival rate is much higher than I initially believed.

There were also 2 1795 half dollars in Strickland's collection: a regular strike and a re-cut date. So the answer to your speculation is 'yes' they gave Strickland some silver coins with striking issues. Regarding the Strickland MS64 the reverse lettering is full whereas on the original striking the tops of many letters are not there because pressure could not be evenly applied on the half dollar press.

RWB, here is a question for you regarding the 1795 silver plug silver dollar that Strickland took back. Was it made on the half dollar press or the silver dollar press?

RWB, Tripp's article says he left the US late July 1795. The silver dollar press was delivered in May 1795. Kbb, Robert Scot became chief engraver in 1793 and had no involvement with the 1792 Patterns. Can you please tell me which Strickland Dollar has the die clashes? I cannot answer your question about the dies; the first striking in October 1794 produced coins with weak areas on the reverse. Coins minted the second time on the correct screw press are fully struck.

Kbb, yes Robert Scot got a second opportunity to produce 1794 silver dollars on the new screw press. Not only did he mint the special dollars for Strickland, but it looks he also made other silver plug 1794 dollars for the Mint. I counted at least 20 coins in Martin's book that show evidence of a silver plug and unsurprisingly they all have strong reverses. I am a long time observer of '94 dollars and honestly I could not accept that they made 3 spectacular well struck coins(SP66 and the two Strickland coins) on a half dollar press. There had to be a different answer.

The copper dollar is also a B-2 variety so it too was struck in 1795 on the new machinery.

I've pointed out that there are 2 different reverses on 1794 Silver Dollars. B-1 is the blundered or weak reverse struck in October 1794 on the half dollar press. B-2 is the normal or perfect reverse restruck on the first silver dollar press in 1795. The SP66 and the Strickland/St.Oswald are part of the second striking so they need to be moved to B-2. Please note that Strickland also took back a beautiful perfect strike 1795 silver plug silver dollar.

It is special as it is the earliest example of a 1794 Restrike Dollar minted on the first US silver dollar coining press.

It refers to the weakness of the strike and letters on the left reverse starting with TED STATE.

There are clear differences in the reverses. Original 1794 dollars struck on the half dollar press have blundered reverses. The SP66 and William Strickland coins have a normal reverses meaning they were were made on the silver dollar press which was delivered in mid 1795. I think your analysis was right on a few years back. The SP66 is the die trial for the Strickland presentation pieces.