Silver has been a precious metal practically since the dawn of history, and along with gold, much of the world has used the metal as a storage of value. In Europe and Asia, silver has been shaped and hammered into coins since the time of the Lydians, seven-hundred years before Judas was infamously paid with thirty pieces for his betrayal of Christ. Between the dawn of the first millennium and the earliest beginnings of the Renaissance, Europe held an essentially finite supply of the precious metal, augmented with meager influx from continental mints, and availability dwindled over the passage of centuries. Populations grew, spreading thin the existing supply, there was attrition from trade with Africa and the far East, and the result of these demands was an ever-shrinking availability for coinage. This in turn caused the intrinsic value of European coins to decline, as coins debased, being struck in diminishing size and lower fineness.

The discovery in 1492 by Spanish explorers of a New World far across the Pacific Ocean changed the situation dramatically. Spain began her distant conquests across the open seas, and saw the development of colonies in the new world, particularly in central and south America. There, the Spanish encountered a primitive society (by their standards) ripe for conquest, with inexhaustible natural resources, and more importantly, enormous deposits of gold and silver.

Exploitation of the native people was easy for the Spanish, who possessed guns and ships that were far more potent than bows and arrows. (Their greatest weapon, however inadvertent, was disease, which killed more Native Americans than ever did gunpowder.) The Aztec, the Inca, Mexico -- all fell rapidly to the Conquistadors.

Rich deposits of silver were found in Mexico's Guanajuato region, but the legendary scope of the mining of silver in America came about with the opening of silver mines in Mexico's Zacatecas and Bolivia's Potosí regions in 1546. Silver flowed back to the mother country in ships heavily laden with tons of the valuable metal. By the late sixteenth century, American silver would account for 20% of Spain's budget.

It has been estimated that a quarter-million Spaniards voyaged to the Americas during the sixteenth century, this from a country which only had eight million people! Given such an enormous emigration, the need for a medium exchange was sure to follow. Currency struck in Spain from the American silver did find its way back to the Americas, but only slowly, and the supply was hopelessly overmatched by the demand for money for local commerce in the colonial settlements.

As early as 1535, Carlos I (Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) had ordered the creation of a mint in Mexico City. Funding for the mint derived from the "King's Fifth", a tax in effect since the days of Ferdinand and Isabella which demanded that a fifth of all silver and gold mined in the colonies be turned into the Royal Treasury.

Establishment of the mint meant that citizens could bring silver and have it melted, rolled out, cut into planchets and struck with official seals and emblems that made it legal tender. A single small, silver unit was known as a reale. This name derived from an old regulation that referred to numus regalis (royal coin). The mint in Mexico City immediately began to strike denominations of 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, and 3-reales, and later the 4-reales, while production of the famed 8-reales began as early as 1538.

The obverse of such coins featured a crowned, quartered shield on the obverse, and on the reverse was represented a pair of columns - the Pillars of Hercules. These symbolize the rocks on either side of the Straits of Gibraltar. In between the columns is text stating PLVS ULTRA, which states that "there is more beyond [the Pillars of Hercules]".

By 1600, European mints were successfully producing high-quality milled coinage, and the new minting technology made its way across the ocean in the early 1700s. In 1732, Mexico City struck her first "pillar dollars". For these coins, the Pillars of Hercules remained on the reverse, but now, PLUS ULTRA was displayed on an S-shaped ribbon that intertwined with the pillars. Legend has it that accountants and tradesmen would reference the coin in written form with a vertical bar and curved line over or next to it, and this became the traditional abbreviation for the denomination. Similarity to the "$" is obvious, and in theory, this became the standard written reference to coined money.

That the first American silver dollar was based upon the world-renowned Spanish coin is a logical progression from the universal popularity and acceptance of the 8-reales. In 1792, Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, reported that a single Spanish milled dollar contained exactly 371 and 4/16th grains (24.057 grams) of pure silver, or 416 grains of standard silver. Standard silver was defined as 1,485 parts fine silver to 179 parts alloy (.8924). Thus, America owes her silver dollar, and the symbol that represents it, to distinguished Spanish heritage.

On October 15, 1794, the United States struck two-thousand silver dollars, it is believed from a deposit from French coins in the Bank of Maryland. About one-eighth of these were deemed unacceptable and likely recycled for use in future coinage. Of the remainder, only up to 130 may survive to today.

PCGS has assigned a grade of VF-30 for this 1794 silver dollar. Details are easily consistent with that grade, notwithstanding the weakness on the left side of the obverse, but even the “weakness” is stronger than seen on most. Practically every known example has this same weakness, derived from inadequate equipment at the mint used to strike these large coins. On the other hand, it is evident that the mint was intent on providing high caliber detail for these large coins, since even on a coin with as much wear as this, exceptionally fine, hair-thin details still remain in protected areas. Look, for example, at the fragile hair strands in the protected area between the second and third group of hair tresses (counting from the bottom up), as well as the presence of other long, slender strands. Clearly, these dies were created with the expectation of a press powerful enough to impart great detail on every coin (and that would be possible the following year with introduction of a new, larger screw press used to strike 1795 dollars).

The surfaces exhibit primarily silver-grey countenance with myriad accents of darker greyish tone. Each side is peppered with a large number of abrasions that could possibly be attributed to circulation, but may be more likely the result of use as a pocket piece. Even though the mint intended coins to circulate, most 1794 dollars were given to dignitaries as souvenirs, and it would be unusual for such a large supply of surface blemishes to result from normal circulation. The effect of the myriad tiny circulation marks is to impart interesting texture that is suggestive of roughness, even though such is not the case. A possible repair may be noted next to third star, and another in front of Liberty's lips, midway between the throat and twelfth star.

From the standpoint of provenance, a gently curving scratch on the eagle's left (observed) leg and a sharp rim ding is noted at 6:30, neither of these blemishes significant to the eye-appeal. Closer examination finds a pinkish-tan powdery residue seen embedded in between points of stars 9, 12, 13, 14, and 15.

Comments from Jay Woodside:

What separates this 1794 dollar from the others I have encountered over the past 30 years is the amount of details observed on this coin. Most examples are very seldom seen with this strong of a strike, so it is somewhat of a challenge to compare value with those that are similarly graded, but which have much less details, specifically with regards to the date and hair strands. If you get a chance, I encourage you to review on PCGS.com the auction prices realized section and view all of the 1794 dollars that have sold over the past five years. Then, compare the quality of details seen on those coins with the quality of details seen on this example.

It is possible that a repair has been made next to the third star, and another in front of Liberty’s lips, midway between the throat and twelfth star, but neither is anything that would or should prevent such an important rarity from earning the VF-30 grade, especially considering how favorable it compares to the often hazy and weekly struck examples that grade in the Fine to high Very Fine range.