3670) Did You Know Series (98): Chopmarked Trade Dollars: A practice started by Chinese merchants in the 17th Century:
As part of a practice dating back to the 17th century, Chinese merchants placed chop marks on many types that were commonly used in global trade.
Trade coins are coins minted by a government, but not necessarily legal tender within the territory of the issuing country. These quasi-bullion coins (in rarer cases small change) were thus actually export goods—that is, bullion in the form of coins, used to buy goods from other countries.
These private countermarks, used to verify a coin's silver
content and acceptability, were utilised until as recently as the early 20th
century.
The bulk of coin collectors have little experience with the Trade Dollar outside of an empty slot in their U.S. Type set, but this short-lived series has a fascinating and unique history spanning both sides of the Pacific.
Of the 75,000-100,000 surviving Trade Dollars, probably around 10,000 examples are chopmarked.
What is a chop marked Trade Dollar ?
A trade dollar chop mark is a Chinese character or characters stamped into a U.S. Trade Dollar coin by a merchant to verify its authenticity, weight, and silver content.
Some facts about trade dollar chop marks:
Purpose:
Chop marks were used to help circulate silver coins in the Orient, which was the intended market for U.S. Trade Dollars.
Frequency:
Some trade dollars were chop marked dozens of times, while others were only chop marked once or twice.
Size and shape:
Chop marks vary in size and shape.
Collectibility:
Chopmarked trade dollars are highly collectible and sought after because of their exotic history.
History:
The practice of placing chop marks on coins dates back to the 17th century.
Trade dollars were silver coins minted as trade coins by various countries to facilitate trade with countries in East Asia, especially China and Japan. They all approximated in weight and fineness to the Spanish dollar, which had set the standard for a de facto common currency for trade in the Far East.
The USA Experience:
In the U.S.A., the Trade Dollar holds the distinction of being the heaviest of the American silver dollars at 27.2 grams (or 420 grains, as noted on the coin's reverse).
Thanks to considerable confusion over the type’s legal tender status and its practical value in the United States, the Trade Dollar was also the only coin to be demonetised by an Act of Congress, in July 1876; however, they continued to be minted as business strikes designed for export to the Far East until 1878, and in proof format for years after.
The Chinese experience:
In China, the Trade Dollar had a somewhat different experience, enjoying some commercial success as evidenced by the presence of chop marks on many surviving examples.
As part of a practice dating back to the 17th century, Chinese merchants placed chop marks on many types that were commonly used in global trade. These private countermarks, used to verify a coin's silver content and acceptability, were utilised until as recently as the early 20th century.
The great majority of Trade Dollars that received these chop marks ended up in Chinese melting pots where they became bullion, typically sycee ingots.
The relatively small proportion of chopmarked Trade Dollars that survived U.S. government redemption and destruction for their silver content, spanning a variety of conditions, have become highly collectible and sought after by those who are entranced by the exotic history of these coins.
A romantic retelling of how the Trade Dollars were minted:
Typically when describing the Trade Dollar to the non-collector, a romantic retelling of the coin’s history and historical impact can spark the imagination.
In the Old West, silver was mined from the Comstock Lode in rough, remote conditions.
This silver was carried down from the mines via horse, oxen, or donkey-drawn wagon to the recently-founded mint in Carson City (or shipped to either the similarly new mint in San Francisco, or back to the primary national minting facility in Philadelphia) and coined into Trade Dollars.
The Trade Dollars bound for the ports in San Francisco were then placed onto a steam-powered locomotive to be carried through a still very wild Sierra Nevada mountain range.
Upon arrival, the coins would be loaded onto a steam ship for the perilous journey to Asia.
From that point, the coins would be received by merchants and their corresponding silver specialists (‘shroffs’), chopmarked, and used to purchase silk, tea, spices, and other goods.
Some of the chopmarked coins would circulate around the coast and eventually make their way back to the United States over the ensuing century, particularly when it was speculated that the U.S. government would redeem these mutilated coins at their advertised value. Most chopmarked Trade Dollars would end up being melted abroad.
The global trade, heavy usage, and melting of Trade Dollars trimmed a total mintage for the series of 35 million coins to a likely remaining population of 75,000–100,000 coins, of those surviving coins, probably around 10,000 examples are chopmarked.
Total straight-graded examples at PCGS and CACG (services that provide numerical grades to chopmarked examples of the type that show no other condition issues) total fewer than 1,700, which includes approximately 125 CAC stickered examples (NGC does not currently award numeric grades to chopmarked Trade Dollars).
One factor contributing to the rarity of chopmarked Philadelphia coins (with the exception of the 1877, which is scarce but by far the easiest P mint issue to locate with chop marks) is consistently lower mintages. The other primary cause is simple geography; it was much more difficult for a coin to make its way from Philadelphia to Shanghai compared to a coin starting the trip in San Francisco.
Unsurprisingly, the two key dates for chopped coins are largely the same as their non-chopped counterparts—the 1875 and 1878-CC.
The 1878-CC has fewer than a dozen known examples sporting chopmarks.
The 1875 is even more difficult, as nearly all purported 1875 specimens feature chop marks conveniently obscuring the mintmark area, or they are actually 1875-S issues with a known, overly-polished die that eventually caused the mint mark to disappear. Fortunately, the 1875 has many distinctive die features and is usually easily identified.
The History:
The existence of trade dollars came about because of the popularity of the silver Spanish dollar in the Far East, such as in China, East Asia, and the East Indies. Following the establishment of Spanish Philippines, Manila (in the modern area of Intramuros) became an entrepôt for Chinese goods in one direction and Spanish silver dollar, from across the Pacific to the Spanish-held mints and silver mines of Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia, in the other.
The Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade, led from the 16th Century onwards to the wide circulation of "pieces of eight" as a standard of trade in the Far East.
The high regard in which these coins came to be held, led to the minting of the silver Chinese yuan, a coin designed to resemble the Spanish one.
The first trade dollars were struck in 1873; the majority of these were sent to China.
Eventually, bullion producers began converting large amounts of silver into trade dollars, causing the coins to make their way into American commercial channels.
This caused frustration among those to whom they were given in payment, as the coins were largely maligned and traded for less than one dollar each.
In response to their wide distribution in American commerce, the coins were officially demonetised in 1876, but continued to circulate. The production of business strikes ended in 1878, though proof coins officially continued to be minted until 1883. The trade dollar was re-monetised when the Coinage Act of 1965 was signed into law.
In the U.S., the Trade Dollar holds the distinction of being the heaviest of the American silver dollars at 27.2 grams (or 420 grains, as noted on the coin's reverse).
Thanks to considerable confusion over the type’s legal tender status and its practical value in the United States, the Trade Dollar was also the only coin to be demonetised by an act of Congress, in July 1876; however, they continued to be minted as business strikes designed for export to the Far East until 1878, and in proof format for years after.
In China, the Trade Dollar had
a rather different experience, enjoying some commercial success as evidenced by
the presence of chop marks on many surviving examples.
As part of a practice dating back to the 17th century, Chinese merchants placed chop marks on many types that were commonly used in global trade. These private countermarks, used to verify a coin's silver content and acceptability, were utilized until as recently as the early 20th century.
The great majority of Trade Dollars that received these chop marks ended up in Chinese melting pots where they became bullion, typically sycee ingots.
The relatively small proportion of chopmarked Trade Dollars that survived U.S. government redemption and destruction for their silver content, spanning a variety of conditions, have become highly collectible and sought after by those who are entranced by the exotic history of these coins.
Links to posts from the East India Company on Trade Dollars:
2) Japanese Trade Dollars: Niue Island in partnership with East India Company Bullion Ltd. has issued the fourth coin in the five-coin series titled "The Trade Dollar Collection" depicting five Trade Dollar Coins which shaped commerce in various parts of the world: A Gold 250 Dollar and a Silver 1 Dollar issued in 2019
3) French Trade Dollars: Niue Island in partnership with the East India Company Bullion Ltd. has issued the Fifth Coin in the five-coin series titled "The Trade Dollar Collection" depicting five Trade Dollar Coins which shaped commerce in various parts of the world: A Gold 250 Dollar and a Silver 1 Dollar Coin issued in 2020 depicting the French Trade Dollar
1) The Travels of a silver Mexican Peso:1898 restruck in 1949
2) Ancient Chinese, Indian and Islamic coins at the Shanghai Museum
3) A Road trip to Himachal - Manali, Dharmshala, Simla
4) coins-and-currency-of the SAR of-Hong-Kong
5) Coins and Currency of the SAR of Macau
6) Yuan Shih-Kai or "Fatman" or "Big Head" silver dollar
7) Currency of the People's Republic of China - Yuan, Jiao & Fen
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