American Numismatic Society - This week at the International Numismatic Congress in Taormina, I gave a presentation about the
US Trade dollar, a silver coin that was minted between 1873 and 1878 expressly to facilitate trade with East Asia.
Its purpose was rather transparently expressed in the coin's design, which features the figure of liberty seated upon a bounty of trade goods facing west to the ocean with an olive branch in hand. The reverse clearly delimits the national origin of the
Trade dollar in legend and symbolism, but more interestingly includes a precise description of its silver content: 420 GRAINS, 900 FINE. Quick math shows that it contained 378 grains of pure silver, which was more than the 371 ¼ grains of the 'standard'
Seated Liberty dollar. This change was made to give the
US Trade dollar more appeal in the Chinese market, where Spanish dollars minted in the Americas and, after independence in 1821, Mexican dollars were the primary circulating medium. These had a silver content measuring between 374 and 377 grains, which meant that the new
US Trade dollar had a more silver and bullion value.
What the new
US Trade dollar lacked of course was both recognition and trust. Spanish dollars had been circulating through Asia in volume since the 17th century, and the shroffs who weighed and assayed foreign silver for Chinese merchant house were rightly skeptical of new coins. Still, by 1876 some 12 million
US Trade dollars had been exported, and the large number of extant 'chopmarked' coins, which were struck with punches bearing Chinese characters that indicated their acceptance by merchants, attested to their successful introduction internationally.
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Posted 09/27/2015 5:53 pm
