Dollar coins are probably one of the least used coins in today's United States. In today's blogs, I will be going over the history of this coin. I was inspired to write this after finding Susan B Anthony dollar in a coin book.

The first silver dollar ever minted for the United States was the flowing hair dollar. It was minted from 1794-1795. On the obverse is a lady with flowing hair, the word liberty and the date. On the reverse is an eagle and the words of the United States of America. Two of the top 10 most expensive coins ever sold or flowing hair dollars.

From 1795 to 1804, United States minted the Draped Bust silver dollar. The adverse is very similar to that of the flowing hair dollar, except for the lady's hair is not flowing. There are two different reverses for this type of coin and they are similar to that of the flowing hair dollar because there is still an eagle in the words United States of America. The reverses were 1795 to 1798 and 1798-1804. There are only eighteen of the 1804 dollars in existence. 

After the 1804 dollar, no silver or gold dollar was minted until the Gobrecht dollar came into existence in 1836.  On the obverse is a seated Lady liberty, the field, in the day. On the reverse is a flying eagle in the words United States of America one dollar. In 1840 this type of a dollar was replaced by the liberty seated dollar. Interestingly, the design is the same except for the eagle is not flying and the words one dollar is abbreviated to 1 DOL. 

Trade dollars were issued for circulation in Asia to compete with the trade dollars of other countries. Even so, they were legal to use in the states too. They were issued from 1873 to 1885. On the obverse is a seated liberty, 13 stars, and the date. On the reverse there's an eagle and the words United States of America, .420 grains, .900 fine trade dollars, 900 fine referring to the amount of silver used in the coin.

Gold dollars were minted from 1849 to 1889. Every gold dollar had to be 1.62 g and .900 gold. The first goal dollar was mentioned in 1849 and the other is a lady liberty's head and 13 stars with a wreath and the words one dollar on the reverse. The rest of the gold dollars were very similar but with an Indian princess head instead of lady liberty's

see you in part 2!