Trade Dollars (1873–1885)

Every Design Decision on the Trade Dollar Pointed Toward China

The Coinage Act of 1873 authorized a new denomination for export, not for domestic use: a silver coin heavier than the standard dollar, carrying its weight and fineness printed directly on the reverse so that Chinese merchants, skeptical of foreign coinage, could verify the silver content without having to trust a foreign government's representations. The coin weighed 420 grains, slightly more than the Mexican peso it was intended to displace, and its reverse legend, reading 420 GRAINS, 900 FINE, left nothing to inference. The design was prepared by William Barber, who had succeeded James B. Longacre as Chief Engraver in 1869. On the obverse, Liberty sits atop bales of merchandise with a sheaf of wheat behind her, facing left toward the Pacific, her right hand extending an olive branch toward Asia; a ribbon inscribed LIBERTY crosses the bale; IN GOD WE TRUST appears on a panel below; 13 stars encircle above and the date anchors below. The reverse carries an eagle with three arrows in the right talon and an olive branch in the left, a reversal of the convention used on other silver coins of the era, with E PLURIBUS UNUM on the ribbon, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and TRADE DOLLAR surrounding.¹

San Francisco struck more Trade Dollars than Philadelphia and Carson City combined. The geography was deliberate: the San Francisco Mint stood at the head of the Pacific shipping lanes to China. Between 1874 and 1878, millions of coins were exported annually, circulating in southern China where merchants accepted them alongside other large silver trade coins. The coin succeeded on its commercial terms: it was recognized and trusted in Chinese markets. Its troubles came from Congress and the falling price of silver at home.²

Congress Made It Legal Tender, Then Revoked That Status When the Silver Price Fell

The Coinage Act of 1873 gave the Trade Dollar limited legal tender status within the United States for transactions up to five dollars. This provision became a problem when the price of silver began to decline. Bullion producers who had silver to sell found it advantageous to have it struck as Trade Dollars, which could then be distributed at face value domestically. Congress responded with a joint resolution of July 22, 1876, which revoked the legal tender status of Trade Dollars for domestic use and authorized the Treasury to limit coinage to the export demand. Demonetization did not end the domestic circulation: some employers bought Trade Dollars at a discount and paid them to their workers at face value, and workers who accepted them as dollar payments were receiving less than a dollar's worth of silver at market prices and could do little about it.³

Chopmarks Are the Evidence That the Coin Did What It Was Designed to Do

Coins that circulated in China are found with chopmarks: small incuse stamps punched into the surfaces by Chinese merchants and assayers who had verified the coin's weight and silver content. Each chopmark recorded a merchant's test of the coin in the trade the Coinage Act of 1873 had intended to facilitate. Each merchant or money changer used his own chop, and specimens with dense accumulations of marks passed through many hands across years of use in Chinese commerce.⁴

Chopmarked Trade Dollars of the common dates usually sell below unmarked examples in similar grades; for high-mintage San Francisco issues a discount of about 25 percent is normal, according to Greysheet. The coins that actually did what they were designed to do are worth less in the numismatic market than the coins that were hoarded or set aside before reaching Asia. An unmarked Trade Dollar in Very Fine is more likely to have been held domestically than one bearing the marks of Chinese commerce. Collectors who want a coin that actually went to China buy chopmarked examples, and usually pay less for them.⁵

Business Strikes Ended in 1878; Regular Proofs Continued Through 1883

Treasury Secretary John Sherman stopped the mints from accepting Trade Dollar orders on February 22, 1878, and the Bland-Allison Act of February 28, 1878, passed over President Hayes's veto, committed the government's silver purchases to standard Morgan dollars. Business strike production ceased. The Mint continued to strike Proof Trade Dollars annually at Philadelphia for collectors through 1883, in mintages ranging from approximately 500 to nearly 2,000 pieces per year, with most years below 1,100 but 1879 (1,541) and 1880 (1,987) representing a brief boom in collector demand. These Proof issues are scarce but collectable and trade at prices broadly comparable to each other across the run. An Act of 1887 authorized a six-month window during which undamaged Trade Dollars could be redeemed for face value, clearing a substantial portion of the domestic supply; most examples today derive either from that redemption era's survivors or from coins that had been in Asia and returned later.⁶

The 1884 and 1885 Were Never Officially Authorized and Were Unknown for Decades

The official Proof series ends with 1883. Ten examples exist bearing the date 1884, and five examples bearing the date 1885. Neither issue appears in official Mint records as an authorized production. Both came to public knowledge only in 1908, when coin dealer John W. Haseltine brought them to market; they are believed to have come from the estate of his father-in-law, William K. Idler, who had held strong informal connections to Philadelphia Mint officials. A year before that public appearance, Haseltine's partner Stephen K. Nagy had already sold an 1884 privately to Virgil Brand, in 1907; the 1885 dollars have no documentary trail before they came on the market in 1908, and the earliest recorded purchase of one is Brand's from Edgar H. Adams on April 26, 1911. Research by Carl W. A. Carlson found an entry in A. W. Downing's Mint record book showing a single pair of 1884 Trade Dollar dies delivered to the coining department on January 3; no comparable record has been found for the 1885.⁷

The 1884, with 10 known, and the 1885, with 5 known, are among the rarest silver coins in the series. Neither the Smithsonian, the American Numismatic Society, nor the American Numismatic Association holds an example of either date. In January 2019 at the FUN Convention in Orlando, Heritage Auctions offered the finest known 1885 (NGC Proof 66, ex Eliasberg Collection), which realized $3,960,000, the confirmed record auction price for the issue; the same session produced $1,140,000 for an NGC Proof 66 example of the 1884.⁸

Building the Set

A type set requires one coin: any business strike from 1873 through 1878 in any grade. San Francisco issues are the most common and the least expensive, and a circulated 1877-S or 1878-S in grades from Very Good through Extremely Fine shows the design at modest cost. Chopmarked examples are available at lower prices than unmarked examples and provide a direct connection to the coin's commercial purpose. A date-and-mint set of all business strike years and mints (1873-1878, three mints, with no Philadelphia business strike in 1878) is achievable and well within the range of an advanced collector. The Proof series (1873-1885) adds eleven years of regularly issued Proofs (1873-1883) plus the clandestine 1884 and 1885, which are collected separately. The primary specialist reference is Q. David Bowers, Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia (Wolfeboro, NH: Bowers and Merena Galleries, 1993), 2 vols., whose Chapter 12 covers the Trade Dollar.⁹