@CaptHenway said: @TradeDollarNut A serious question. What do you think of Roger Burdette's recent Coin World article that posits that the Proof-only Trade Dollars from 1879-on were issued as "medals" rather than as "coins?" Obviously they were made to sell to coin collectors, but there are serious issues raised as to whether they were "monetized" or not.
I suppose that the same question could be raised as to the silver dollars struck in 1834 and 1835. Were examples of those submitted to the Annual Assay Commissions for those years?
IMO, completely irrelevant to all but the serious academics.
And ‘monetization’ only applies from 1913 onward - when the fed was created. Besides - weren’t ALL proofs at that time treated as medals anyway?
It might be irrelevant for general conversation, but this thread did start off by saying the 1884 trade dollar is a legit Mint issue....
@tradedollarnut said:
Did you know that the 1884 trade dollar...
...is a legitimate Mint issue? Authorized and struck under normal circumstances...then saved from the melting pot....similar to the 1876-CC twenty cent piece.
While I was at ANACS we received in a Proof $20 Liberty that appeared to be in Copper-Nickel, which was not listed in the Judd catalogue. Weight and specific gravity were correct for either copper, which was listed, or copper nickel. Puzzled over it for a while and finally just called the submitter to see what I could find out about it.
He said that it was normal copper colored when he bought it but that he had left it in a jar of old Jewelluster that he had dipped a lot of silver coins in, and the solution had silver plated the coin! Of course it never occurred to him to mention this on the submission form! We certified it as copper, silver plated.
Out of curiosity I got a jar of Jewelluster and left a silver art bar in it for a while to leach some silver into the solution and then put a few copper personal tokens into the jar and sure enough, you can plate copper that way. Rather dull, which was why I had thought it was copper-nickel, and sometimes uneven in spots. I do not recommend it as a plating process.
TD
Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
Comments
It might be irrelevant for general conversation, but this thread did start off by saying the 1884 trade dollar is a legit Mint issue....
Yup
While I was at ANACS we received in a Proof $20 Liberty that appeared to be in Copper-Nickel, which was not listed in the Judd catalogue. Weight and specific gravity were correct for either copper, which was listed, or copper nickel. Puzzled over it for a while and finally just called the submitter to see what I could find out about it.
He said that it was normal copper colored when he bought it but that he had left it in a jar of old Jewelluster that he had dipped a lot of silver coins in, and the solution had silver plated the coin! Of course it never occurred to him to mention this on the submission form! We certified it as copper, silver plated.
Out of curiosity I got a jar of Jewelluster and left a silver art bar in it for a while to leach some silver into the solution and then put a few copper personal tokens into the jar and sure enough, you can plate copper that way. Rather dull, which was why I had thought it was copper-nickel, and sometimes uneven in spots. I do not recommend it as a plating process.
TD