Silver Dollars of 1794-1804
IN THE 1850s, when coin collecting first became a national hobby, the most popular coins were the old large cents and the early silver dollars. The interest in the older dollars is all the more remarkable because in those days a dollar meant something in buying power; wages of $10 a week were not all that uncommon. The story begins in the early 1790s.
In April 1792, President George Washington signed into law the bill creating a mint and coinage for the United States. The keystone of this act was the silver dollar weighing 416 grains and containing 371.25 grains of pure silver. The fineness was thus set at .8924+, the only time this degree of fineness has been used in world coinage.
The 1792 law was flawed in several respects but for silver coinage the main problem was the high bonds established for the chief coiner and assayer, $10,000 each. Neither Henry Voight nor Albion Cox was wealthy and the two men could not find the necessary sureties; for this reason there was no silver coinage in 1793. The government then asked Congress to lower the bonds to more reasonable levels and in March 1794 the legislators did just that; the new amounts were quickly met.
In the spring of 1794, Mint Director David Rittenhouse decided to begin the silver coinage with the half dime,
