Heritage to Auction Double Plug 1795 Silver Dollar

A newly discovered, dual-plugged 1795 Flowing Hair silver dollar will cross the auction block this August at the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in Anaheim, California.

Authenticated by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) and graded AU53, this first-of-its-kind rarity has two distinct silver plugs each measuring about 4 millimeters in diameter. Other silver dollars of the year feature plugs, but this is the first known example to have two of them.

"Many 1795 silver dollars, along with a single 1794 dollar and a small number of 1795 half dollars, show evidence of a Mint-inserted plug, apparently to achieve a correct weight for the planchet prior to striking," explained Mark Borckardt, Heritage Senior Cataloger. "Today, for the first time, we have a 1795 Flowing Hair dollar that has two Mint-inserted silver plugs, one at the center of the obverse (heads) and the other at the lower reverse."

The obverse plug appears on Liberty’s neck, tangent to her jaw line which appears through the plug.

The reverse (tails) plug is between the ribbon ends.

"Apparently, the first plug on this coin was not enough to bring up the weight to the standard level of 26.96 grams, so a second plug was inserted," said Borckardt.

Struck at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, this dual-plugged 1795 Flowing Hair silver dollar weighs 26.98 grams.

"Its discovery 221 years after its production makes us eagerly anticipate what other numismatic treasures are still waiting to be found," Borckardt added.

The rarity and others will be presented Aug. 10 during Heritage’s Platinum Night event.

Heritage Auctions is the largest auction house founded in the United States and the world’s third largest, with annual sales of more than $900 million and over 950,000 online bidder members. To learn more about the company, visit HA.com.