Values
A Draped Bust dollar is the silver dollar from late 1795 until regular dollar coinage stopped. This page is a series reference, not a price list.
The mintage chart leaves G, VF, and MS-63 blank. The NGC US Coin Price Guide file retrieved 2026-08-21 does not cover this piece. Do not paste an auction hammer into the grade columns.
If you have one and want to sell it, start with how to sell a coin collection. The Flowing Hair dollar is the previous type. The Gobrecht dollar is the next silver dollar, decades later.
Key Dates
1795 is shared with Flowing Hair until the draped bust begins in October. The heraldic eagle arrives in 1798. Regular coinage in this article runs through dollars dated 1803.
The 1804 dollar is famous and it is not a regular-issue row. A count of survivors is not a mintage.
Errors
1804 as a business strike. The article’s point is that the date was not a normal delivery of 1804. Leave it off the chart.
Small eagle and heraldic eagle merged in a caption. The wings and the shield tell them apart. Both still belong here.
Flowing hair dated 1795. Loose hair without the drape is the other page.
Compare the coin to the NGC Coin Explorer. That category includes Flowing Hair. We do not host their plates.
Varieties
Small eagle from 1795 into 1798, then a heraldic eagle. Dies were hand-finished, so guides use Bowers-Borckardt numbers for die marriages. This page names the reverse change and does not list every marriage. The 1804 date sits outside the regular issues.
- Small eagleThe first reverse, from late 1795 into 1798. The plate on this page is a 1795 of that eagle.
- Heraldic eagleThe shield eagle from 1798. Do not grade every dollar as if it were the small-eagle plate.
- Bowers-Borckardt numbersBB numbers sort the die marriages. A draped bust dollar is still one date until that number says otherwise. This page does not print the catalog.
Names follow PCGS CoinFacts and NGC, the same publishers this site already cites. This is a name list, not a price list and not a count.
Mintage
Draped Bust dollars, small eagle and heraldic eagle.
| Year | Mint | Mintage | G | VF | MS-63 |
|---|
Mintage: the note under this table names the page that printed each count. These figures are not an NGC Coin Explorer extract and they are not the 1974 Mint pamphlet.
Collector-standard year/mint presentation follows A Guide Book of United States Coins (the Red Book). These cells are Mint manufacture figures, not a Red Book net or melt.
Values: NGC US Coin Price Guide, retrieved 2026-08-21. Guide values, not offers. Not melt. NGC IDs link to the same publisher’s price-guide listing.
Key date names: NGC Coin Explorer. Bold rows are only dates that publisher named.
The chart is empty on purpose. The Wikipedia Draped Bust dollar article does not print a year-by-year mintage table. The 1804 date is not turned into a regular-issue row. Because the coin is a circulation type, a future table of the dated counts would belong here. A remembered count does not.
The grade columns are empty because this site has no NGC guide extract for this coin.
Specifications
These are mint specs, not what a dealer pays. Wear can take a little weight off. We will not invent a tolerance. The weight row is the 1792 standard for a dollar. No catalog page used here prints a thickness.
| Specification | Figure |
|---|---|
| Diameter | Not printed |
| Thickness | Not printed |
| Weight | 416 grains standard (Coinage Act of April 2, 1792) |
| Composition | 1,485/1,664 silver, the rest copper (Coinage Act of April 2, 1792) |
| Edge | Not printed on a cited catalog page |
| Designer | Robert Scot |
No catalog page used for the Draped Bust dollar prints a thickness. Diameter and thickness stay Not printed. The weight is the 1792 dollar standard. The 1804 date is not a second planchet.
Grading
A Draped Bust dollar wears first in the drapery and on the eagle.
Small eagle and heraldic eagle share the page. An 1804 date is not a regular-issue grade.
Key Diagnostic Areas
| Area | What to examine | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Drapery | The cloth at the shoulder. | The drape separates this dollar from Flowing Hair. |
| Eagle | Small eagle or heraldic eagle. | The wings are the reverse type. |
| Date | 1795 through the regular issues, and not a business-strike 1804. | The 1804 dollar is a different class of coin. Leave it out of the grade story for a normal date. |
| Edge | The lettered edge. | Lettering is the design. A soaring eagle is Gobrecht. |
Circulated & Mint State
These cards describe this coin, not a second copy of the P-1 through MS-70 chart. The shared numbers live on the glossary.
See graded photos. The photos that show what VF looks like live at PCGS. We do not host their plates. NGC Coin Explorer is another look if you want a second set.
What each named grade looks like on this design.
Poor
Poor
A disk you can still call a Draped Bust dollar if you already know the type.
- The drapery and the eagle are gone.
- The date may be a shadow. Do not scrape it.
- Shine does not make this a better coin.
AG
About Good
You might read a digit. The high points on this Draped Bust dollar are already slick.
- The drapery and the eagle are worn to a blank patch.
- If you cannot read the date without hoping, stay here.
- A 1798 is still this grade if it is this worn.
Good
Good
The date is readable. The design is still mostly an outline.
- The drapery and the eagle are flat. The type is an outline, not a portrait.
- The rim should be full enough to hold the legend.
- This is a worn coin, not a details story.
VG
Very Good
The date is clear. A little life returns away from the high points.
- Some leftover detail sits away from the drapery and the eagle.
- The high points are still tired.
- Do not clean the date to “see it better.”
Fine
Fine
You can follow the design. The high points are outlined, not sharp.
- The drapery and the eagle are outlined and flat — no real sharpness yet.
- The rest of the coin can look busier than the grade.
- The date should be clear. The mint mark should be too, if there is one.
VF
Very Fine
The type is doing real work. The drapery and the eagle still decide.
- Leftover detail sits on the drapery and the eagle. The centers are still the worn spot.
- Marks do not raise the grade.
- A regular 1798 is still this grade if it is this worn.
EF
Extremely Fine
Most of the coin looks sharp. The high points tell on it.
- Light wear on the drapery and the eagle.
- The rest of the coin can look better than the grade. Trust the high points.
- The date should be sharp.
AU
About Uncirculated
Almost no wear — and “almost” lives on the same high points.
- A trace of rub on the drapery and the eagle.
- Luster may still sit in the fields. Rub on those high points is still rub.
- A bright coin with a slick high point is still slick.
Basal MS
Mint State
No wear. The fight is marks and luster, not how white the coin looks.
- No rub on the drapery and the eagle.
- Marks and luster decide how this mint-state coin lives.
- A bright chewed-up coin is still chewed-up.
Choice
Choice Mint State
Still no wear. Cleaner fields than basal mint state.
- Same no-wear rule on the drapery and the eagle.
- Fewer marks in the fields. Luster is more intact.
- White is not a grade.
Gem
Gem Mint State
A clean Draped Bust dollar for this type. Still mint state, still not a story.
- No wear on the drapery and the eagle.
- Marks and luster, not a romance about a date or a white field.
- A slab is an opinion in plastic. The glossary has the numbers.
This page does not invent a PR price grid. The proof numbers live on the glossary.
Copper color designations do not apply to this silver coin. See the Lincoln Wheat cent and the glossary.
Overview
The Draped Bust dollar runs from 1795 to the end of early dollar coinage, with the 1804 date sitting outside the regular issues. The first reverse is a small eagle. The later reverse is a heraldic eagle. Dies were hand-finished, so the dollar article warns that varieties are numerous. Varieties are not a mintage table.
The photograph is a 1795 Draped Bust dollar with the small eagle, from the National Numismatic Collection. The heraldic eagle is the other reverse on this page. Do not grade every dollar as if it were that plate.
This page is a series article, not a shop listing.
History
The draped bust replaced Flowing Hair in October 1795. Dollars continued, in changing quantities the overview does not tabulate, until the Mint stopped regular silver-dollar production in the early 1800s. The last regular dates are not 1804. The 1804 dollar is a later story, and the article’s survivor count and auction result stay out of this chart.
Silver dollars do not return as a circulation series until the Gobrecht pieces of the late 1830s, and then the seated dollar.
Design
Obverse: draped Liberty facing right. Reverse: small eagle, or a heraldic eagle with a shield. Edge: lettered. No mint mark.
The drape at the shoulder is the type. The eagle’s wings are the reverse type. A soaring eagle with no shield is Gobrecht, not this coin.
People Also Ask
Why is the chart empty?
The Draped Bust dollar article and the dollar overview do not print a year-by-year mintage table. This page will not fill one from memory.
Is the 1804 dollar a regular 1804 mintage?
No. The dollar article treats the 1804 date as a later class of dollar, not as ordinary 1804 coinage. It is not a row of business strikes.
What are the two reverses?
Small eagle from 1795 into 1798, then a heraldic eagle. They share this page. They are not two grades.
How much is a Draped Bust dollar worth?
This page does not print guide prices. The NGC US Coin Price Guide file retrieved 2026-08-21 does not include this coin. An auction result is not a guide cell.
Collector Considerations
Separate 1795 by the bust, not by the date alone. Leave 1804 out of the regular chart. A price realized for an 1804 dollar is a sale, not a mintage cell.
Do not invent the 1795–1803 totals. The half dollar has a table. This dollar does not, in the sources used here.
The Draped Bust half is the fifty-cent coin with a published ledger.
A Final Word
The Draped Bust dollar page is two eagles and an empty chart. The 1804 date stays a note.
An auction story is not a mintage.