http://www.stampandcoin.co.uk APRIL 2016^127The Flowing Hair Silver Dollar,
believed to be the first coin
struck by the US Mint, will be
on display in a free exhibition in
London from 18 to 20 March.
The 1794 Flowing Hair
Silver Dollar is one of the most
highly regarded coins in the
coin-collecting world. The coin
being displayed in the UK was sold at auction on 24 January, 2013 for $10,016,875
(approximately £7.2 million) – a world record price for a coin.
The coin will be displayed alongside an original copy of the American Declaration of
Independence, printed in Boston in July 1776, which is worth approximately $4 million.
The first US Silver Dollars were struck on 15 October, 1794, with a total of 1,758
silver dollars made that day on a hand-turned screw press at the Philadelphia Mint.
Designed by Robert Scot, the US Mint’s chief engraver from 1793, the obverse of the
Flowing Hair Silver Dollar features the figure of Liberty, adorned with flowing hair,
and surrounded by fifteen stars – representing the fifteen states of the United States
of America at that time. The reverse features an eagle encircled by a wreath, and the
legend United States of America.
This is the first time that a 1794 Silver Dollar has ever been exhibited in London
and is the final leg of a European tour which will see The London Mint Office’s parent
company, Samlerhuset, take the coin to seven other European countries – Czech
Republic, Poland, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Ireland.
The London Mint Office is offering UK households the chance to own a Flowing
Hair Silver Dollar for themselves, giving away for free up to 100,000 scale reproductions
of the world’s most valuable coin, layered in pure silver. The reproductions can be
ordered at http://www.flowinghair1794.co.uk. The exhibition runs from 18 to 20 March at La
Galleria, 5b Pall Mall, 30 Royal Opera Arcade, London SW1Y 4UY.Auction highlights
A 1793 USA ‘chain’ cent coin, said to be the finest
surviving circulation strike ‘chain’ cent, was recently
sold at Stack’s Bowers Galleries in the USA as part
of the D. Brent Pogue Collection sale. Chain cents,
named after the intricate chain design around the
coin’s value, were produced for only two months
during 1793. While the chain design was intended
to symbolise unity, many critics saw it as a reference
to slavery and public reaction to the coin was
generally negative. ‘This legendary coin, discovered
less than forty years ago, is widely acclaimed as the
single finest half cent of its era,’ the auction house
stated. ‘No other Liberty Cap half cent of any date,
not even the much more common 1795 and 1797
issues, has survived looking as much like it did at
the moment it was struck.’SOLD FOR £716,227
An English William III (1694-1702) guinea of 1701
was recently sold by Spink. The coin was described
as having a ‘decent lustre’ and featured a laureate
bust facing right on the obverse, with crowned
cruciform arms, lion of Orange-Nassau, and crossed
sceptres on the reverse.SOLD FOR £2,617
Baldwin’s recently sold a German 1½ thaler minted
in Hamburg around 1635 to 1668. The coin showed
a Nativity scene along with the text ‘IESUS EIN
KINDT GEBORN’ and was described as ‘very fine’.SOLD FOR £240
Most valuable coin comes to London
The well-loved Beatrix Potter bunny Peter Rabbit will
become the first character from children’s literature to
appear on UK coinage, The Royal Mint has confirmed.
The Mint is to mark the 150th anniversary of the
birth of Beatrix Potter this year with the release of four
coins featuring characters from her best-selling stories.
The full colour silver proof coins will be released during
2016, alongside plain-metal circulating versions. Peter
Rabbit will be the first character to make an appearance,
with the other three characters to be revealed by The
Royal Mint later in the year.
Royal Mint designer Emma Noble, who worked on coins commemorating the sixtieth
anniversary of the Queen’s coronation and Remembrance Sunday, was given the task of
recreating the Beatrix Potter illustrations on coins. She said: ‘It it amazing to be given the
opportunity to work with such famous and treasured literary characters. I wanted to put
Beatrix Potter’s illustrations to the forefront of my design as they are lovely images and
the characters are very well known.
‘I felt they were strong enough to stand alone and I designed them in this way as I
thought they would work best for both the coloured commemorative and un-coloured
circulating coins. I really hope people are pleased with them as a set.’
The obverse of each coin bears the fifth definitive portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by
Royal Mint engraver Jody Clark.Peter Rabbit hops onto UK currency
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