Discussion On A US Trade Dollar

100% real; mint mark 'S'






Hope these two pictures clearer.

I've taken the liberty of moving this thread to a more appropriate audience.




This is likely the case. Inhibiting the matter was the reticence of the Chinese public to accept new and unfamiliar designs; the introduction of the Trade dollar was actually rushed somewhat because for that same reason Mexico was about to issue a redesigned Peso similar to the old design which had been changed.

Another factor was that as silver production in the US ramped up, the intrinsic value of silver went down and American interests found Trade dollars to be profitable, as their face value exceeded their bullion value. So, many Trade dollars were reimported.

Regarding the coin here: I won't express a firm opinion as to authenticity based on relatively-small images, but there are certainly no obvious signs of a counterfeit. Furthermore, if I were going to expect to find an original coin of this type in the Orient, Hong Kong would be where I'd start looking.

Extremely well-bought at the price, if real.

Like SSuper said it looks real in the poor photos but no way to tell for sure from them. What strikes me odd is the fact this coin was found over there with no Chinese chop marks on it. It does appear to be harshly cleaned.

Don't lose track of Hong Kong's size or economic importance; I'm no more surprised that a high-quality American coin would surface there than I would be in London, Paris or Berlin.

Hello, I have to go to work today so I will give you more pictures tonight. Hong Kong can be a good place to buy trade coins of various types in the last two centuries but they became very rare as the people of mainland China getting very rich, they come back to buy what they sold several decades ago. I bought a (high grade) fake of this type before this genuine one and will also submit a few pictures to you for comparison. Best wishes to all.

Yes, SD you are right, the intrinsic value of silver went down...

So the Act of July 22 1876 was issued... Do you know what this Act had done? I find that in 1877 there were still very large number of Trade dollars struck in 1877 and 1878.

Did the Act of July 22 1876 stop Trade dollars as the legal tender statue or something that I don't know...

3 more pictures of the same coins but greater magnification.










Of course I know there are so many fake of this type of coin. I bought one in 2004-05 by HK$300 in HK also. This is a high grade counterfeit and let you see in the following post.

this is the reason one should buy slabbed or buy from well known members or dealers. Scary!

An interesting fact of this era is that individual owners of silver were allowed to have their metal coined by the Mint into silver and Trade dollars for a small fee. The Act of 1876 demonetized Trade dollars, making then no longer legal tender in the United States but only for export to Asia. This, as you note, resulted in two very large years of production at the San Francisco Mint.

An aside - consider the very high quality of San Francisco Morgan dollars, especially in the early years of production. Now you know why they were capable of that - their experience producing Trade dollars in quantities of 4-5 million per year (when the Philadelphia Mint had reached the quantity of one million Seated dollar coins only twice, and once with Trade dollars) left them the most capable Mint in the country when it came to crown-sized coins.