Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States - A Complete Encyclopedia

Domestic Circulation

The domestic use of trade dollars became more of a problem in 1877 as the decline in the price of silver continued. Factory owners bought the coins at a discount and then paid them out to workers at face value. The workers in turn were forced to take a discount at those stores which would accept them and the storekeepers were victimized when they redeemed them at the few banks accepting trade dollars. Practically everyone discounted the coins although some communities solved the problem in part by setting a fixed value, usually 80 to 85 cents. By late 1877 perhaps as many as 11 million pieces were in the American marketplace.

To stop this vicious circle of increased dumping of trades in America, the Treasury stopped all coinage in October 1877 although those individuals who had already deposited silver were allowed to get their coins. By early in December the last depositor had been paid off. The lull was not to last, because Silverites brought great pressure to bear on the government to reopen the mints for trade dollar coinage. The Treasury permitted this at the end of December, but with a proviso that the depositor had to prove the coins were going to be exported.

Sherman Orders Production Halt

The proof of export required under the new regulation simply produced fraud on a grand scale as suddenly everyone wanted to export the coins, or said they did. Fake export papers became the order of the day, and Treasury Secretary Sherman again ordered a halt in coinage, this time for good, on February 22, 1878. Some 97,000 had been coined at Carson City before the new order was received, and of these, 44,148 were later melted. More than four million were produced at San Francisco, with an unknown number being melted.

Part of the reason that the second stop order worked was that Congress had approved the resumption of silver dollar coinage at the old weight standard of 412.5 grains. The government was required to buy large quantities of silver bullion which would, the Silverites hoped, get rid of the massive surplus still building up. (Steps leading up to the creation of the Morgan dollar are discussed in my chapter on the history of this issue.)
Trade dollars still in circulation in the United States proved something of a political embarrassment. It was not until 1887 that the government agreed to redeem, at one dollar, all those pieces which had not been mutilated in some way; the regulations had in mind the Chinese habit of chop-marking. Some 7.7 million were eventually redeemed although many of the remaining coins circulated at one dollar until well after 1900. When the government redeemed the trade dollars, the stigma was removed and the public accepted them as ordinary coinage.

The Philadelphia Mint continued to strike Proof trade dollars for collectors until 1883, although the pieces were not included in the regular silver Proof sets and had to be purchased separately. Sales were generally good, averaging a thousand pieces per year after 1880.

The Secret 1884 and 1885 Coinage

Although the trade dollar coinage began with great fanfare and publicity, the ending of the series is cloaked in mystery. It is generally stated that 10 specimens of the 1884 and five of the 1885 exist in silver, and several 1884s in copper, but there is no record of these tiny coinages in the surviving documents. The coiner did record the destruction of the 1884 dies on January 2, 1885, but after that the documents fall silent. Even the record listing the die destruction in 1885 has a notation that no specimens had been coined from them.

It is highly likely that the clandestine trade dollar coinage was struck under the auspices of Philadelphia Superintendent A. Loudon Snowden (who had replaced James Pollock in March 1879) and Coiner Oliver C. Bosbyshell; Engraver Charles E. Barber may also have been involved, though this is speculative. It was a fitting end to the coinage.

Die Records

The following information concerning trade dollar dies is from the records of the Engraving Department and other Mint files and has never appeared previously in a numismatic publication. The records are fragmentary and incomplete. Nonetheless, some valuable information is imparted:

1873:
July 12, 1873: 4 pairs of dies were shipped to Carson City.
July 13, 1873: 6 pairs of dies were shipped to San Francisco.
September 22, 1873: 6 pairs of dies were shipped to San Francisco.
October 18, 1873: 2 pairs of dies were shipped to Carson City.
November 11, 1873: 6 pairs of dies were shipped to San Francisco for 1874 coinage.
November 14, 1873: 6 pairs of dies were shipped to Carson City for 1874 coinage.

1874:
February 26, 1874: 12 obverse and 6 reverse dies were ordered for shipment to San Francisco (sent on March 17th)
February 27, 1874: 4 obverse and 6 reverse dies were ordered for San Francisco (to be sent hardened).
March 24, 1874: Note under this date in records states that 15 obverse and 15 reverse dies were sent to San Francisco in 1873; 8 obverse and 8 reverse dies to Carson City in 1873.
April 9, 1874: Inquiry instituted re: broken package seal on 10 dies sent to Carson City.

June 26, 1874: Note mentions that Proofs are struck in a screw press.
June 27, 1874: 6 pairs of dies were sent to San Francisco.
June 19, 1874: 6 pairs of dies were sent to Carson City.
July 17, 1874: 6 pairs of dies were sent to Carson City.
August 3, 1874: 12 obverse and 24 reverse dies were sent to San Francisco-to be 1/4th inch longer than the present (order).
October 21, 1874: Carson City order: 18 pairs of dies.
November 12, 1874: 24 pairs of dies sent to San Francisco, 18 pairs to Carson City; coiner suggests steel plate at San Francisco rather than added length (regular length was 2.5 inches).

1875:
January 9, 1875: 175 Proof trade dollars [dated 1874 or earlier] were released into circulation. (These must have been unsold specimens dated 1874. "Released into circulation" probably meant sold to coin dealers for face value. There is uncertainty here. (Per letter from R.W. Julian to the author, April 23, 1992.)
February 5, 1875: The San Francisco Mint reports that 30 obverse and 27 reverse dies were destroyed (1874-dated dies).
July 10, 1875: San Francisco requests 6 pairs of dies (sent July 28th).
December 8, 1875: 24 obverse and 2 reverse dies sent to Carson City for 1876. (Indicating an adequate number of (undated) reverse dies on hand from earlier Shipments.)

1876:
January 3, 1876: 1875 Philadelphia Mint dies destroyed, amounting to 6 obverses and 7 reverses; 3 reverses held over for 1877. (Presumably, the seven destroyed reverses were unfit for further use.)

March 21, 1876: San Francisco die destruction; 30 obverses and 27 reverses.
October 3, 1876: Approximately 530,000 trade dollars were reported melted at Osaka, Japan in August and September 1876.
November 10, 1876: 6 obverses ordered for Carson City (1877 dated).
November 11, 1876: Carson City die order for 1877: 6 obverses (sent December 4, 1876)
November (date unknown), 1876: San Francisco die order for 1877: 6 pairs (partial order?).
November 24, 1876: 6 obverses ordered for San Francisco (1877 dated), .
December 21, 1876: San Francisco dies sent; 18 obverses and 8 reverses.

1877:
January 3, 1877: Philadelphia dies destroyed, 8 obverses and 8 reverses (of 1876); none held over.
July 7, 1877: Engraver says one pair of hubs executed in fiscal year 1876-7.
July 19, 1877: 24 dies of "best quality steel" ordered for San Francisco.
July 19, 1877: Note states that average number of trade dollars struck per die pair is 175,000; earlier, it had been much lower.

1878:
January 3, 1878: Philadelphia dies destroyed, 30 obverse and 31 reverse; none held over. Only 26 obverses and 30 reverses were actually used, however; one unused pair destroyed because of defective hardening.
January 11, 1878: 125 Proof coins were released into circulation.(No 1879-S coinage materialized, however.)

December 16, 1878: 5 obverse trade dollar dies sent to San Francisco for 1879.

1880:
December 29, 1880: San Francisco returns 36 reverse dies to Philadelphia.

1882:
January 14, 1882: 1 pair of dies destroyed at Philadelphia (from 1881 coinage).

1885:
January 2, 1885: 1 pair of dies destroyed at Philadelphia (1884). "None struck."