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

A Commemorative Reverse Proposed

Dr. Linderman suggested to Superintendent Pollock in the fall of 1875 that the trade dollar of 1876 have a special reverse honoring the centennial of American independence. Pollock replied by noting that a new reverse would not only cause problems for circulation in the Orient but would also require congressional approval, not easily obtained on such short notice. The idea was carried out, however, on the reverse of the 1876 Assay Commission medal.

One of the odder incidents came in 1876 when a Philadelphia storekeeper wrote Superintendent Pollock to report that trade dollars from San Francisco and Philadelphia were of differing thicknesses. Pollock soon discovered that the complaint was correct; such coins were often counted by the thickness of 20 specimens and variation in height was a serious matter. Pollock asked Coiner A. Loudon Snowden to investigate. It was found that 25 Philadelphia trade dollars equaled the same height as 26 pieces from California. Snowden reported that the parent mint struck the coins at the middle of the collar while San Francisco struck its coins at the top of slightly wider collars. Thus, the Western pieces were slightly wider and thinner. (The collar is the circular die surrounding the planchet and which imparts the reeded edge as the coin is struck.)

During 1876 the number of trade dollars going into domestic circulation accelerated despite the July 22, 1876 congressional action removing their legal tender status. A Treasury survey was conducted toward the end of the year, showing that the West was virtually free of these coins while the Midwest and East were increasingly used as dumping grounds. The numbers grew as the price of silver declined (see "Domestic Circulation" below).

Paquet's New Reverse Die

With complaints about the general striking quality of the trade dollars still being made, Director Linderman looked into the situation more closely. He decided to hire Anthony C. Paquet, a former assistant mint engraver who had resigned in 1864 to pursue private engraving work. (Paquet was a minor figure among nineteenth-century Mint engravers and is best remembered today for certain pattern coins of 1858 and 1859 and the reverse design with distinctive tall letters used on certain 1861 and 1861-S $20 gold pieces). For $600 Paquet agreed to produce a reverse die that would strike up better than anything done in the Mint. In May 1876 the hub was finished and a die made to test the work.

The completed patterns are now known as Judd-1320 and 1321 and have no date on the obverse. (For a long time it was thought this was simply one of the 1873 patterns that had been rejected; Judd erroneously lists them under 1873.) Paquet's reverse did just as he claimed: the striking on the standard coin press was much better than the regular issues being produced. However, the director reluctantly decided that the new hub could not be used because of all the trouble involved in explaining the new design to the Chinese.

Although the Paquet reverse was ultimately rejected, it is known that William Barber' did make minor changes in his own design from time to time. The fiscal 1877 Mint Report, for example, says that two new hubs were executed for this denomination, but the precise meaning of this entry is not known.

Barber also tried an interesting experiment in 1876. He had the used trade dollar dies returned to him and then filed them down to bare metal. The engraver used these to create additional working dies. Unfortunately these dies had a bad track record, often breaking or cracking long before the regular ones. The experiment was marked down as a failure.

Trade Dollars in China

In 1876 Linderman ordered a thorough review of the trade dollar situation in China. It turned out that the coin had still been unable to penetrate the North China marketplace, though it was still doing reasonably well in the South. One American consul, who perhaps had been drinking a bit too much of the local brew, claimed that the failure of the trades in the North was a British plot. He reported that counterfeit Mexican 8 reales were manufactured in Birmingham and then shipped to China. The consul did not explain how this bizarre allegation could affect the importation of trade dollars.

Japan started its own trade dollar in 1874 in direct competition with the Americans but used United States coins as a bullion source for its issues. This helped dispose of American surplus silver but accomplished little else. In the 1890s the British also issued a trade dollar and it too used primarily American coins for bullion, but this was long after the American trade dollars had ceased to be issued. Large numbers of United States trade dollars were also melted to manufacture rupees at the Indian mints at Bombay and Calcutta.