1885 Trade dollars

stephunter

I was just browsing through the website accross the street and came accross the Richmond and Eliasberg 1885 Trade dollars. Why is it that a coin that has a total production of just 5 coins has such a different appearence. I am assuming that the coins were made from the same dies. If so, why would one be a PF62 and the other a PF66? Also, the Richmond coin appears to have a lot of hairlines. Why would any service put it into a holder. Wouldn't a common coin with that many hairlines get body bagged?

RYK

We recently discussed 1885 Trades here.

tradedollarnut

I think one reason for the difference in appearance is that King Farouk lacquered his 1885, whereas Eliasberg kept his coins in specially prepared holders that were a bit more coin friendly.

morgannut2

No, most proofs below MS-65 have hairlines and the services treat them differently than business strikes. They may be graded far below PR-60 in fact because in part they have very delicate surfaces. And yes a deep mirror prooflike dollar
that is a business strike will be body bagged, but they too are given a bit more slack, if not deliberately cleaned with the intent to sell and mislead the buyer.