Any theories on chop mark size?

Weiss

Chopmarks on 8 reales are almost always very tiny. Chopmarks on US trade dollars are often much, much larger.
Is it just a function of age? The reales circulated earlier--maybe 60 or 70 years at a minimum up to 100 years or more.
But I've seen examples of first republic Mexican pieces with similar small chops--even those that circulated later than trade dollars.
Maybe a function of where these pieces traveled within China? Is it possible that the chops we see on US pieces are more closely related to import marks rather than merchant marks?
Any other theories (or facts)?

Unknown

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MilkmanDan

My belief is that location and period influenced size and styles, kind of like fads. 1700-1800ish were fairly small, while mid to late 1800s were mostly bigger.

You’ll sometimes see portrait 8 Reales with big chops, but that could easily mean that the coin hung around to be chopped much later than the date it bears. You’ll also see Cap n Rays 8 Reales with very small chops, so small chops made a comeback at some point.

AUandAG

I have always understood that China used large marks and Japan and other parts of Asia used small marks.

Don't remember where that came from.

bob

TLeverage

As others have stated, it seems likely that the shift in chop mark size was simply a shift in style. The earliest pieces (17th century cobs) bear almost exclusively small size chops, and we gradually see larger chops being introduced as we proceed into Pillar and Portrait 8 Reales. There seem to be very few smaller chops applied to a large host base in the third quarter of the 19th century (very few Trade Dollars bear small marks, as you note), but the smaller marks seem to be gradually reintroduced in the last decade of the nineteenth century and into the early 20th century, by which point they are nearly universal.

What seems to be odd is that there seem to be a fairly large number of Cap and Rays 8 Reales of the same period as the U.S. Trade Dollar that bear small chops; perhaps there is some credence to the argument that small vs large chops was a regional distinction in this timeframe. It would be interesting if there were a means to determine where Cap and Rays were predominately shipped/circulated vs. Trade Dollars in the 1870's, in an attempt to resolve this discrepancy.

ricko

I am surprised that Rose did not pursue this in the book..... I must go back and look though, been quite a while since I read it.... Cheers, RickO