A fourth [press] for dollars and medals, in particular, will be finished in about three months. -- Elias Boudinot, February 9, 1795.Pastel iridescence has gathered on both obverse and reverse, each lightly reflective and fully lustrous, the sort of toning imbued by decades in a paper envelope over the sort of surfaces that only good fortune and benign neglect can ensure. Outside of direct light, the toning sparkles with metallic silver-gray with dusky blue and blushes of orange-gold. Well lit, the luster enflames a bright golden periphery retaining blue-green and deep violet on the obverse, while the reverse blends silver and deep amber with peripheral blue. The detail is complete, ideally centered, and framed with broad denticles around the entire circumference of both sides. Each star shows full, fine centers. The eagles breast is fully feathered, a bit soft at absolute center but complete nonetheless, while the highest relief of Libertys portrait, at the opposite center, shows the ear and the full gamut of accompanying fine details. Short vestiges of adjustment marks are seen inside of the obverse denticles, outside of stars 1 through 4, and an asterisk of deeper adjustment marks is hidden in Libertys hair below her ear. A glass finds some very minor hairlines and minor slide marks on the cheek. A single dark speck is present in the right obverse field below its midpoint. The die state is typical, with a fine die crack from the left ribbon end to the denticle below it, near U of UNITED. The tops of the reverse lettering are drawn slightly toward the rim. The line-like die injury, seen on all specimens of this variety between star 5 and the back of Libertys hair, is present. The aesthetic appeal, incorporating every aspect from strike to color, luster to technical grade, is superlative.This die variety is the variety chosen more often than any other to represent the type, as more examples from this marriage have survived than any other die marriage before the institution of the Draped Bust design. Common in circulated grades and occasionally available at lower Mint State levels, the variety that was long known as Bolender-5 remains extremely rare as a gem.The typical solid strike seen on this variety, showing softness only at the extreme centers, could not have happened using the press used for the incompletely struck 1794 dollars. Intended for smaller coins, that press was pushed beyond its limits to coin the large diameter dollars. Its insufficiency resulted in a halt in dollar coinage until the situation could be remedied.Elias Boudinot, director of the Mint, assured Congress on February 9 that "A fourth [press] for dollars and medals, in particular, will be finished in about three months." The first group of dollars struck on the new press was delivered on May 6, 1795, almost exactly three months after his testimony. The press was paid for on February 2, a week before Boudinot testified, when a warrant for $937.19 was made payable to Samuel Howell, Junior and Co. for "sundry castings, wrought iron, etc." Records cited in Frank H. Stewarts History of the First United States Mint indicate that this press weighed "1 ton 11 cwt," or 3,232 pounds. This enormous, durable machine never yielded its position as the largest of the Mints screw presses, striking all future Flowing Hair and Draped Bust dollars.Though the dollar press of 1795 represented a giant leap forward for the Philadelphia Mint, silver dollars continued to be struck with more attention to their weight than their aesthetics. Production of specimens like this, boldly struck upon a planchet free of significant adjustment marks or other natural flaws, remained inconsistent, and examples of this remarkable technical quality that have survived to the present are extraordinarily rare. Despite the incredible plurality of gems in the D. Brent Pogue Collection, no 1795 Flowing Hair dollar graded finer than MS-64 by PCGS has ever sold at public auction.
