1800 Sliver Dollar Dotted Date - 1800 S$1 Dotted Date, NGC AU55, BB-194, B-14. Here is a Choice About Uncirculated 1800 Silver Dollar of the Dotted Date variety. Light lilac, aqua, and gold mix in the fields. The devices are a mixture of light tan and gold and standout against the lighter fields. Libertys profile is outlined with some darker shading that looks like her shadow. Similar shading is found beneath most of the obverse stars. The fields are completely original and clean with no individual abrasion marks that can be seen without magnification. The strike is far above average with full details on Libertys hair, the shield, and the clouds above the eagle. E PLURIBUS UNUM is fully legible. The dotted date feature is easy to see within and above the first 0 in the date.

The coin is identified as a BB-194, the Dotted Date variety. Dot-like breaks appear inside and above the first 0 in the date. They also appear between the L and I of LIBERTY, under Libertys nose, in front of her chin, and below Stars 1, 6, and 7. Star 8 is nearer the Y in LIBERTY than Star 13 is from the bust. Star 7 is further from the L than Star 8 is from the Y and Star 1 is distant from the bust. On the left, Stars 2 and 3 are close together. Stars 1 and 2 and Stars 3 and 4 are far from each other. On the other side, Stars 8 and 9 are farther apart than the others. On the reverse, only 12 arrows are easy to see. The 13th is almost hidden from view.  A leaf points to the center of the I in AMERICA. The point of Star 12 is touching the eagles upper and lower beak. All of the upper stars touch clouds except for Star 5, which almost touches. The letters ME touch at their bases. The A in STATES is over Cloud 3 and the area between Clouds 3 and 4. The tip of the lowest arrowhead is under the right upright of the U in UNITED. These obverse and reverse dies were used to strike only the 1800 BB-194.

The Draped Bust, Heraldic Eagle type dollar was made from 1798 to 1804. The obverse shows a draped bust of Liberty facing right. Above is the inscription, LIBERTY, and the date is below. Seven six-pointed stars are to the left and six are to the right. The portrait, taken from a drawing by the famous artist Gilbert Stuart, is of Ann Bingham. John Eckstein translated this drawing to models for Engraver Robert Scot. Evidently Eckstein made the models poorly, which might explain why Stuarts family refused to acknowledge his role in the coinage design. The eagle with up stretched wings and a Union shield on its breast is called a heraldic eagle. E PLURIBUS UNUM is inscribed on a banner that curls across the left wing and under the right. The inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is in an arc near the periphery interrupted by the wing tips. In an arc pattern are thirteen stars above the eagles head under the clouds. The edge is lettered, and dentils are near the edge on both sides of the coin.

Robert Scot placed the arrows in the wrong talon in what some have called colossal design blunder. Arrows symbolize aggressive militarism when held in the eagles right talon, on the left side. They should have been placed in the left talon with the olive branch in the right. If this rearrangement was unintentional, it shows a new, inexperienced country that cant even get its symbolism correct. If this was a deliberate rearrangement, it shows a young country taking an aggressive stance during a time of conflict. In 1799 the country was engaged with France in an undeclared naval war. Perhaps this symbolism was being used to make a statement to France and others about the sovereignty of the United States.

The omission of the denomination was intentional. Except for its edge, the coin has no denomination-- something that might appear as a sign of ineptitude. However, since United States coinage was new to the world market of the 18th century, the term dollar would have been unfamiliar to merchants of the day. Like European coinage of the time, silver and gold pieces were valued by their weight and fineness so the denomination was largely irrelevant.

The Draped Bust, Heraldic Eagle series had several varieties. The first two reverse dies of 1798 have five vertical lines in the stripes of the shield. All dollars following them had four vertical lines. Production of the series continued through 1804, but the famous 1804 dollar was struck in 1834 from new dies and then restruck in 1859.

Record keeping in the Mints early years was fairly inaccurate. At the end of the eighteenth century Philadelphia had recovered from the British occupation and Revolutionary War. It was the second largest city in the English-speaking world, but it could do nothing to protect its citizens from the mosquito-borne epidemic of yellow fever. Its wealthy citizens went to the countryside to escape, and the poor grimly waited their fate. Of course these annual epidemics caused havoc with all manufacturing that required continuity, such as a coinage sequence. In addition to yellow fever, chaos at the Mint was also caused by chronic bullion shortages, coin dies that would wear out and had to be re-engraved because they were not taken out of production until they failed completely, and a Chief Engraver, Robert Scot, who was in his seventies and had failing eyesight.  

Scot was born in 1744 in Edinburgh, Scotland or England. (Documentary evidence is lacking as to where he was born.)  He was trained as a watchmaker in England and learned engraving afterwards. He moved to the United States in 1777, where he worked as an engraver of plates, bills of exchange, and office scales. During the Revolution, he was an engraver of paper money. In 1780 he was made the State Engraver of Virginia. He moved to Philadelphia the next year. He was appointed Chief Engraver of the United States Mint on November 23, 1793 by David Rittenhouse, Mint Director. Scots ability to make dies was limited, and in his advanced years he had failing eyesight. His work was somewhat less than that done in Europe at the time, and Scot was criticized for its poor quality. He was responsible for designs of most of Americas first coins.

In its population report, NGC shows 2 1800 Dotted Date silver dollars in AU55 condition with 6 better. PCGS also has 2 in AU55 condition with just 2 better. These numbers do not account for crossovers or resubmissions.