For those of you who don't know, this is a hugely significant coin. It was pronounced by President Washington as "a small beginning". This coin the half disme is considered by many as being the first coins struck by the US mint following the Mint Act of 1792.
The one question everyone seems to forget about these things is "Was the Mint legally authorized to strike silver coins at that time?" And the answer is no they could not legally make silver coins. So if they can't legally make coins, then these are not coins. Call them patterns or tokens made to order for someone, but they are not coins. In my opinion these were struck so Washington could deliver on a political promise. More than a year earlier he had promised to move forward with providing coins for the country. It had been some time so these were struck, Washington mentioned them in his speech, and then nothing else was struck for months.
