Cool Trade dollar opium snuff box modification

dalladalla69

I have seen these mentioned in books before but first time actually seeing one, I think its pretty neat.

Anyone here own one?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?icep_id=114&ipn=icep&toolid=20004&campid=5338461489&mpre=https://www.ebay.com/itm/1877-S-US-1-One-Trade-Dollar-Snuff-Opium-Secret-Box-Hollow-Coin-Antique-Locket/163733618283?epid=170416114&hash=item261f48be6b:g:F8YAAOSwpwZdAnRJ:sc:USPSFirstClass!94025!US!-1

Insider2

I use one in the authentication course. Most students think it is counterfeit because it has no "ring" when tapped.

ricko

Interesting piece... but not at that price.... I like Trade Dollars and exonumia can be interesting. However, I can buy good coins with money saved....Cheers, RickO

AlexinPA

EBay

Dealer

Look kind of alike, huh?

mbogoman

Here's mine!

kbbpll

Is there evidence that these were really used for opium? It does not seem like an ideal container for a black sticky chunk.

Hemispherical

Knowing I’m in a coin forum made me realize that the pics above were not toilet seats with covers.

Then again, who knows.

Perspective of size.

BillJones

I have had this one for many years. The "opium thing" is just a sales pitch. They were mostly made to house pictures, like the one shown earlier. There are also Columbian Half Dollars that have been modified this way.

Hemispherical

Were the three holes a push open/lock mechanism, @BillJones , so that you could take out the O-ring and put a photograph in?

JBK

Agree. These are all for photos, not opium. Although his sweetheart might have been intoxicating.

ARCO

Price is high. It is hard to find these at auction, but they tend to sell in the $250 range at auction. I had been looking off and on for about 10 years. Found two within a few months.

These are my favorite Exonumia coins.

davewesen

dang, I was underbidder on what is probably a box dollar. I stopped bidding because it looked damaged on reverse edge.

https://hibid.com/lot/270718102/1873-trade-dollar-ag

Coins3675

Interesting.

CaptainBlunt

The Sunday Chronicle December 28, 1884
(SF newspaper) taken from the New York Mail and Express

New Use For Trade Dollars
Match-Boxes, Cigarette-Cases and Pocket -Pieces Made of Silver
A new use has been found for the much abused trade dollar by an enterprising jeweler of Maiden lane, New York. He takes the despised coin and makes it up into such shapes as he can without destroying its identity “It is called the Bachman idea,” said the jeweler.
“Some of the designs are copyrighted, just as a publisher would copyright a book, to keep the sharks and guerillas of the trade from stealing them. “ Here is one, he said, producing what appeared to be a new specimen of the coin, designed for a pocket piece. The piece is split and hollowed out so that a picture can be placed in it. The pieces fit together so perfectly that no one would ever suspect the use to which it had been adapted. Here is a match-box made of four of the dollars. You can see the coins, although split so that both surfaces show the face of the design, are so bent and worked into shape that their outlines are undisturbed. Nothing else enters into the composition of the box but the hinge.” Another curiosity shown us was a cigarette case made of coins of various denominations -dimes,quarters, half-dollars and trade dollars-welded on to a silver base of alligator-skin design, and so oxidized that the coins seem a century old.
”Is there no law against putting the coin to such use?” Inquired the reporter.
“You can do as you please with United States money if you do not attempt to counterfeit it, or try to pass it after you have mutilated or tinkered with it. Speaking of counterfeit reminds me of the experience of a friend of mine in the same line. He conceived the idea of making a cigarette-case of gold and enamel to resemble a roll of bills. He carried out the idea and succeeded so well that the Secret Service officers got after him and he made only one specimen. It was a beauty, however, and represented a roll of fifty-dollar bills. The design was perfect.”

TomB

It seems appropriate that CaptainBlunt would post to a thread about opium snuff boxes!

CaptHenway

Most excellent research item!

@CaptainBlunt said:
The Sunday Chronicle December 28, 1884
(SF newspaper) taken from the New York Mail and Express

New Use For Trade Dollars
Match-Boxes, Cigarette-Cases and Pocket -Pieces Made of Silver
A new use has been found for the much abused trade dollar by an enterprising jeweler of Maiden lane, New York. He takes the despised coin and makes it up into such shapes as he can without destroying its identity “It is called the Bachman idea,” said the jeweler.
“Some of the designs are copyrighted, just as a publisher would copyright a book, to keep the sharks and guerillas of the trade from stealing them. “ Here is one, he said, producing what appeared to be a new specimen of the coin, designed for a pocket piece. The piece is split and hollowed out so that a picture can be placed in it. The pieces fit together so perfectly that no one would ever suspect the use to which it had been adapted. Here is a match-box made of four of the dollars. You can see the coins, although split so that both surfaces show the face of the design, are so bent and worked into shape that their outlines are undisturbed. Nothing else enters into the composition of the box but the hinge.” Another curiosity shown us was a cigarette case made of coins of various denominations -dimes,quarters, half-dollars and trade dollars-welded on to a silver base of alligator-skin design, and so oxidized that the coins seem a century old.
”Is there no law against putting the coin to such use?” Inquired the reporter.
“You can do as you please with United States money if you do not attempt to counterfeit it, or try to pass it after you have mutilated or tinkered with it. Speaking of counterfeit reminds me of the experience of a friend of mine in the same line. He conceived the idea of making a cigarette-case of gold and enamel to resemble a roll of bills. He carried out the idea and succeeded so well that the Secret Service officers got after him and he made only one specimen. It was a beauty, however, and represented a roll of fifty-dollar bills. The design was perfect.”