1876 Trade Dollar - Real Or Not? Love Token? Now With Pics

Unfortunately, it looks like I am not going to be able to get a response from exoguy.
Since I cannot post this for sale here yet and don't have a sellers account with ebay, where would be the best place to sell this?

Exo, here .... Only just spotted Jbuck's message.

Agreed, a love token, and the Trade dollar looks genuine. As these go, the workmanship is excellent. Had the design been more ornate, its value would be enhanced. That said, the host coin for this item was not then legal tender, stateside, adding to this piece's appeal. I've only seen a few of these Trade dollar love tokens over many years of collecting. So, only a serious collector of these would pay a fairly strong price, maybe $150-$200 is my guess. The average dealer would probably pay $50-$75; this, given the likelihood he'd have to sit on his investment for awhile. The trick is finding the right buyer in this fairly slim market. The best prospects might be found by shopping it around at larger coin shows. Many dealers are, themselves, fair and honest collectors at heart.

Slider's example, which sold for $249, faces a fair prospect of being attributed. I doubt this to be the case with our OP's coin. Attribution, or even the possibility of same, enhances the value of a piece. There then exists the opportunity to attach history to a piece. History sells.

Thank you ExoGuy and jbuck for taking the time to help me. I'm already trying to decide what I want to get help with next. It might be that you have sparked a new obsession for me.
Thank you again

leave it as it is. Do not clean, or polish it..

PLEASE .... do not polish it, make it shiny!

There's a flip-side to your question, azpackratt. There are collectors and even some noteworthy dealers who insist that once a coin was altered, albeit engraved or counterstamped, it ceases being a coin. The late, noteworthy exonumia dealer, Rich Hartzog, expressed this opinion in some of his published writings. I once wrote to Rich and heartily disagreed with his stance. It's evident that most such altered coins, keepsake pieces aside, clearly continued to circulate for years. I've found many contemporary newspaper articles that attest to same. Also, consider that, back in the 1800's coins were valued for their specie or metal content, too.

If a rose is dried out and pressed into a book, let's say, does it cease being a rose? Of course not. A rose by any other name is still a rose. The same logic applies to coins. Furthermore, many circulating tokens were also engraved and counterstamped. Unless such a piece wasn't reduced to a basal state, rendered unidentifiable, this damage surely wouldn't erase its persona or genre as a another variety or token-type. As an example, there are Civil War tokens that were counterstamped or engraved, following the war. Surely, their original identity is not lost. The stamping or engraving simply adds to their history to some degree or another.

There are some Civil War and Hard Times tokens, even counterstamped coins, that are avidly collected as transportation tokens. Such pieces offer cross-collector appeal which, given increased demand, typically enhances their market value at auction. There are many rare coins out there that were counterstamped and/or engraved. I once plucked an 1873-CC quarter from a dealer's junk box at an ANA convention. It had been engraved and holed. Obviously, it was worth far more as a coin than as a love token. Many coins and tokens were and still continue to be repurposed.

One more thing, azpackratt .... Every collection starts with at least one of something. Since you already own a "key" love token coin, you might want to see how many other type coins you can acquire? This venture could take many years! You'll find that all manner of U.S. and world coins have been engraved.

Dare you check this out? .... http://lovetokensociety.com/past-ne...icles/316-2/

I heartily disagree with this blanket comment. While this is true for common host coins, I can cite a great many auction and sale records for rare date coins that are engraved and/or counterstamped. Art lovers can hardly compete with serious coin collectors who want key coins.

That 1873-cc quarter I mentioned, holed and sporting three engraved initials, sold for $500 some forty years ago. Can anyone really envision an art lover paying that price for such a coin? I can't. This is but one of such examples I could cite.

The headbanging refers solely to the process of polishing coins. We serious, longtime collectors virtually cringe at the thought of this. For this old-timer, just thinking about the process elicits thoughts of fingernails scratching a chalkboard. Both acts are cringeworthy.

I long ago had a dealer friend who owned a local coin shop. One of his regular customers was an old gent whom he helped build a complete set of Morgan dollars. With the set completed, the gent ceased frequenting the shop. Eventually, his widow paid the shop a visit. She wanted to know if the dealer would buy the set. He told her that there were many valuable coins therein, and he'd be happy to buy it. Some days passed, and the old gal returned with the set. She proudly showed the dealer how she'd scrubbed the coins with Ajax to make them equally shiny. Needless to say, she'd literally scrubbed off much of the patina and value of the set. Talk about a headbangin' experience!