Does anyone here collect UK trade dollars?

Longacre

I was looking at the Stack's Gund collection catalog, and it had UK trade dollars in it. I never heard of these (I don't collect foreign coins, but they do interest me). How common are UK trade dollars and how widely are they collected?

shirohniichan

The common dates are fairly common in AU and up. I started collecting them as an adjunct to my US trade dollar collection, but then I decided to just keep one for a trade dollar type set. They were minted in Bombay, Calcutta, and the UK.

I imagine many US trade dollars were melted to make the UK trade dollars. As Chinese merchants bought opium from British traders with silver (including US trade dollars), the silver was brought back to India for coining into British trade dollars.

coinkat

Great obverse design with a neat reverse... I look for them in MS, however, the proof examples seem to be Hot at the moment

TwoKopeiki

They are highly collectible. I am thinking about putting a chopmarked set together.

drjules

Here's an example



Dr J

ajaan

Many are found harshly cleaned.

Cladiator

<< <i>Many are found harshly cleaned. >>

But when you can find an MS example that hasn't been boinked with they are truely stunning.

harasha

And there are a lot of fakes. Care is needed before purchase. You might want to purchase them slabbed.