Chop marks anyone?
BustDMs
Posts: 1,632 ✭✭✭✭✭
A couple of my chop marked trade dollars.
What do you have?
Q: When does a collector become a numismatist?
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
9
Comments
I was hoping to see an 1878-CC in your collection
Lot's of interesting chop marks there. I have a couple:
Here are a couple from my collection:
Complete Set of Chopmarked Trade Dollars
Carson City Silver Dollars Complete 1870-1893http://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/showcase.aspx?sc=2722"
Complete Set of Chopmarked Trade Dollars
Carson City Silver Dollars Complete 1870-1893http://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/showcase.aspx?sc=2722"
Complete Set of Chopmarked Trade Dollars
Carson City Silver Dollars Complete 1870-1893http://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/showcase.aspx?sc=2722"
Well preserved and prooflike to boot
And the OG US trade dollar...
Chopmark could be 巨 or jù, meaning "very large, huge, tremendous, gigantic".
Still waiting on the 75-P....
.#metoo
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
That is what she said, love that 76s 2/2 large S. Special coin
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
Small Japanese short set. For collectors drawn to the hobby for it’s tangible history, I don’t see how stuff like this doesn’t excite.
Just as an example. The scarce one year type yen stuck around Japan to at least 1897 when the went to the gold standard and stamp all dollar sized coins with the round GIN Mark on the top right. Then it left to go to China and circulated there and now sits in Washington DC 100 years later. The green on the bottom yen isn’t verdigris, it appears to be a dried ink or waxy residue.
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
I already showed this one recently, but it's (unfortunately the only) "cool" chopmarked piece I currently have.
Some real nice coin here!
I never cared for the chop marks on the coin ... but I do understand the history.
Good stuff guys. Where is @TradesWithChops?
Well those are cool. I didn’t even know that chop marks were a thing
I have a few
@airplanenut Holy crap, that isn't a few. That is a stunning collection. Really back to basics too. Are they all raw? Some better hub types and varieties for your date run too. The 74p & 77p are better dates that didn't travel much overseas. Love the 73s
I love a collection that it is clear what the collector's theme and focus is opposed to just a pile of stuff.
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
The 1877 is in PCGS plastic (which is surprising, since it straight-graded and it's pretty obviously cleaned, but oh well, tough date and I'm okay with it until a better example presents itself). One or two others may be graded, but off-hand I can't remember. I'm hoping to one day have a full set, though I only see a few qualifying coins of any date per year, and often they're the dates I already have. At the ANA in Philly a few years ago I caught a dealer putting out a few right before I left and was able to pick up two more dates, so that was fortuitous timing.
Edit: since you mentioned it, I looked it up and the 1873-S is a PCGS AU58.
I used to own that, nice coin
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
I have one... a PCGS XF45... Do not remember which year....will have to dig it out later.... Great thread and some really awesome chops....Cheers, RickO
For my own knowledge, is it normal for chop marks to untoned as in OPs images? If a coin is dipped, is that how chops appear? TIA
For a dipped coin yes. You can see plenty of examples in this thread for how they should look - without the dip.
Thanks!
I don't think most people realize the broad diversity of host coins that picked up chopmarks. Quite a collectible and usually affordable field to pursue. The list below barely scratches the surface...so to speak.
Not as affordable as it was even a few years ago, but there's still plenty of good stuff out there at decent prices. It's a double-edged sword; rising prices are something of a justification of taste and indicate a healthy market, but also prevent you from buying much more at the same rate. The Chinese chopmarked pieces have skyrocketed just by virtue of their hosts, not sure how much more I can expand in that areas.
Very nice Sunface!
Love the bust half. I’ll have to dig mine out next week. Also have a British trade dollar.
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
Neat, would love to see pictures.
I bought that bust half in an auction for much less than I thought I would have to pay. You can find seated halves with chops without much effort, but the bust halves with chops almost never turn up.
I’ve had mine for a very long time. 1811 I believe.
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
Some great coins in this thread.
I like that photo of my coin. Do you mind if I add it to my showcase?
Minor Variety Trade dollar's with chop marks set:
More Than It's Chopped Up To Be
Heres just a sampling of my collection-
Minor Variety Trade dollar's with chop marks set:
More Than It's Chopped Up To Be
And if minor varieties are your thing, here are a sampling of some interesting varieties
Minor Variety Trade dollar's with chop marks set:
More Than It's Chopped Up To Be
There is a super cool Instagram for those who appreciate dope coins and interesting reads
https://instagram.com/chopmarkedcoins?igshid=1i68lqocof28l
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
Oh I forgot this one.
Some really cool coins in this thread.
Must have been a while back - do you remember when? I've owned that coin for nearly 10 years. I bought it from John MacIntosh (Sacramento)
Although questionable, every time I look at the reverse on my 1807 SS I see a small chop looking at me
And now we're cooking with gasoline.
I sold it around then on the BST here I believe, maybe eBay. It was the first trade dollar I ever bought. I kid you not, I met a guy at an IHOP on the shady side of town after arranging the sale online and talked coins and ate pancakes. I had never met him before or after but It was going to be my type piece. It turned into a trade set I was pretty proud of. No worries, there are more than a few coins on this thread I know the back story too
Here is a Professional photo I had taken of it back in the day if you like
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
I have a couple
Pacific Northwest Numismatic Association
That’s a great 61-S half, I like it
I have enjoyed this thread, particularly reading about the history of some of these coins. The colorful 73-CC Trade Dollar I posted earlier was owned for many years by Everett Jones, who founded the Chopmark Collectors Club back in the early 1990s. Sadly, he passed away several years ago.
This is one of my current favorites and comes from TDN when I purchased his chopmarked collection several years ago. The 74-P is really, really scarce chopmarked.
Complete Set of Chopmarked Trade Dollars
Carson City Silver Dollars Complete 1870-1893http://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/showcase.aspx?sc=2722"
Notice the misspelling on the label.
Cleaned maybe. Surface damage? Nope - just chop marks. Took them a while to accept that test mark as a chop
Cool S/CC on HA
https://coins.ha.com/itm/trade-dollars/1875-s-cc-t-1-chop-mark-fs-501-polished-pcgs-genuine-vf-details-fs-0125-/a/132109-21147.s
wow! that's quite a "few"... Have you (or anyone for that matter) looked into the individual chop marks to ascertain where and when those chops were prevalent? I might be a way of tracking "provenance" for that particular piece. I can see this being useful for a Trade Dollar with a couple of chop marks, but the wheels fall off the bus pretty quickly once there are more that a few chops... Interesting pieces!!
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I was just having a conversation with some friends about a similar topic, someone had asked whether anyone had found the exact same chopmark on different coins (same character, same tool used). The answer for now, is "no", not that we know of. Many other questions are still unanswered, such as why exactly the chopmarks were used, what did the symbols and characters mean, why was it common to find multiple or in some cases many chopmarks on a single coin, and finally what happened to all the chop tools and why doesn't a single one exist today - even in a museum?
The going theory is that chopmarks served a dual purpose, to break the skin of the coin as a way to discover counterfeits filled with base metals, and as a way for the Chinese shroff (money changer / silver expert) to "bless" the silver with his mark. But this begs the question, why would it be necessary to chop the coin multiple times with the same mark, and why do we find so many coins with so many different chops? I've heard theories as wild as this - the coins were chopped more to deform them so that they were easier to pick up when used by gamblers.
As to the meaning of chops, some chopped characters have meaning today while others do not. It's possible that some of the characters or combinations of characters were more like a merchant logo you'd find today that wouldn't have meaning outside of the Merchant's recognized brand identity. The holy grail for a chopmark collector (other than locating an actual chop tool) would be to find a record tying specific marks to specific shroffs or merchants. The closest thing we've found are a few banker's chopmarks that can be tied to a specific bank from the same time period.
Here's a page out of the latest Chopmark News journal, published a few times a year by the Chopmark Collectors Club. I own this coin and was thankful for the work Colin (the editor) put in to catalog all of the chops.