1794 Flowing Hair Half Dollar
Circulation strike struck at the Philadelphia Mint · 23,464 made
- Mintage
- 23,464
- Metal
- 89.24% silver, 10.76% copper
- Weight
- 13.48 g
- Diameter
- 32.5 mm
Original illustration. Tap to flip. Not a photograph of the actual coin.
Face value · Metal value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is a 1794 Flowing Hair Half Dollar worth?
Few coins in the series are harder to find. Even a worn 1794 sells well above face value. The flip side is that counterfeits and altered dates are common, so authentication matters.
What would make yours worth more:
- Uncirculated condition with full original luster
- A die variety or minting error
- Certification by PCGS or NGC, which buyers expect for scarce dates
For market prices, check recent sold results for certified coins in the same grade.
Quick answers
- Is the 1794 Flowing Hair Half Dollar rare?
- 23,464 were made, which is a small number.
- Is the 1794 Flowing Hair Half Dollar silver?
- Yes. It's 89.24% silver, 10.76% copper and holds 0.3868 troy ounces of pure silver.
- Where is the mint mark on a 1794 Flowing Hair Half Dollar?
- No mint mark. Struck in Philadelphia.
- How many 1794 Flowing Hair Half Dollar coins were made?
- 23,464.
What to check on your 1794
- There's no mint mark on this one, so the date and condition are what matter.
- Look at the edge. Genuine Flowing Hair halves have a lettered edge reading FIFTY CENTS OR HALF A DOLLAR with ornaments between the words. A plain or reeded edge means the coin is a copy. Cast copies often show a seam or a grainy surface on the edge.
- Check the date and mint mark under magnification for tooling or added letters. Scarce dates are the ones forgers alter.
- Don't clean it. Cleaning leaves fine scratches and an unnatural shine that collectors avoid.
- Old coins pick up damage over a long life. Look for holes, bends, scratches or signs of cleaning before you judge the grade, because a damaged coin sells for a fraction of a problem-free one.
- Judge the grade under good light. Hair detail above the forehead and the eagle's breast feathers are key. Adjustment marks are original to manufacture.
Never clean it. Collectors pay strong premiums for original surfaces and natural toning on a date like this. A cleaned coin can lose half its value or more. Low-mintage dates attract altered and counterfeit coins. Check that the date have not been tooled or added, or buy one already certified by PCGS or NGC.
The story of the 1794
1794 was the first year of the Flowing Hair Half Dollar. Philadelphia struck 23,464 of them. The next year it made 299,680 (1795).
No other mint struck it for circulation that year, so every 1794 you find is from Philadelphia.
The first half dollars of 1794 and 1795 (1794 to 1795)
The Mint struck its first half dollars in late 1794, a run of 23,464 from Robert Scot's Flowing Hair design. Liberty faces right with loose hair while the reverse shows a small eagle inside a wreath. The value appears only on the lettered edge, which reads FIFTY CENTS OR HALF A DOLLAR. The 1794 is scarce and nearly all survivors are well worn.
Output rose to 299,680 in 1795, so that date is the one most collectors own. Many die pairs were used and specialists collect them by die variety. The 1795 includes a recut date and a variety with three leaves under each wing of the eagle instead of two. Strikes are often weak at the center. Many coins show adjustment marks from filing heavy planchets before striking.
The first half dollars were struck from silver brought in by depositors, much of it in the form of foreign coins. Each planchet was weighed and filed by hand if it was too heavy, so many coins show adjustment marks, parallel file lines made at the Mint. The 1795 coins include varieties with two leaves or three leaves under each wing of the eagle. Specialists identify the die pairs by Overton numbers.
Elsewhere in US coinage in 1794
Silver arrived in 1794 with the first Flowing Hair dollars, half dollars and half dimes. Fewer than 2,000 dollars were delivered that year because the Mint's press was too small for coins of that size.
How to recognize it
Liberty faces right with loose, flowing hair, with LIBERTY above, stars at the sides and the date below. The reverse shows a small, thin eagle standing on a rock inside a wreath, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA around the rim. The edge is lettered FIFTY CENTS OR HALF A DOLLAR and there is no mark of value on either face.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Series | Flowing Hair Half Dollar (1794–1795) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1794 |
| Mint | Philadelphia Mint |
| Mint mark | None |
| Strike type | Circulation strike |
| Mintage | 23,464 |
| Face value | 50¢ |
| Composition | 89.24% silver, 10.76% copper |
| Weight | 13.48 grams |
| Diameter | 32.5 mm |
| Edge | Lettered ("FIFTY CENTS OR HALF A DOLLAR") |
| Silver content | 0.3868 troy oz (12.030 g) |
| Designer | Robert Scot |
Mintage: United States half dollar mintage figures (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from US Mint records and the Guide Book of United States Coins. How we build these pages.