Q. David Bowers
In 1959, the publication of the first edition of John Willem's book, The United States Trade Dollar, spurred interest in trade dollars, as did the second edition (with a much larger print run) in 1965.
A great investment market in coins extended from 1960 to 1990. There were fluctuations, and there were times in which the interest dwindled somewhat, but many transactions of the 1960s and early 1970s were made with investment in mind, and most made from the mid-1970s through 1980 had the same objective. Trade dollars--especially Proofs and the more common business strike varieties in higher grades-got caught up in the trend in a big way beginning in the mid-1970s.
Starting about 1960, coin collecting became a national pastime. Attracted by investment possibilities in rolls and Proof sets (among other items), members of the public discovered numismatics. The advent of Coin World in 1960, the first weekly coin periodical, did much to quicken the pace of activity. By the time that The Coin Dealer Newsletter made its debut in 1963, many dealers, including certain members of the highly respected Professional Numismatists Guild, were linked together by Teletype circuits. Coin collecting became big business. The great Treasury release of long-hidden Morgan and Peace dollars-including previously rare dates-in 1962 and 1963 also did much to stimulate interest.
Investors entered the market in droves. Numerous companies were set up by and for investors. In Houston, Texas, a firm named PACE was backed by physicians with money to spend, and published bid and ask prices for rolls and Proof sets. Deals amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars were not unusual. For the first time, certain leading dealers had sales over $1 million per year.
Investors were told, and came to believe, that to be of "investment quality" a coin should be in Uncir-culated (the term "Mint State" was not generally used until the 1970s) or Proof. The typical investor cared little about numismatics or coin history, and sought only profit: as much as possible and as soon as possible.
It goes without saying that the most common coins are those that appear on the market most frequently. Some investors turned their attention to trade dollars; not to rare dates, but ones that regularly appeared on the market. The Coin Dealer Newsletter published bid and ask prices for "types"-examples of common dates. As the advance or retreat of these trade dollars could be followed each week, a number of investors were attracted to them.
As time went on in the 1970s and 1980s, the prices of trade dollars rose. To be sure, the values of coins in VF, EF, and AU increased, but most attention was focused upon Mint State and Proof examples. After about 1975, most.transactions involv-ing Mint State and Proof trade dollars involved in-vestors. Average collectors were literally priced out of the competition for higher-grade pieces. However, investors concentrated mainly upon "types" and not rare varieties, with the result that rarities such as Mint State 1873-CC, 1873-5, 1876-CC, etc., coins were generally overlooked, and sold for only modest premiums over "type" prices. An exception was 1878-CC, as its low mintage figure stood out like a sore thumb and created an appeal that even the most unstudied investor could appreciate.
Many of the following advertisements and auction prices quoted from the period from about 1975 to the late 1980s must be analyzed in the context of investor purchases.
The October 1960 issue of The Numismatist printed an advertisement from B. M. Douglas of Washington, D.C. offering trade dollars for sale, some of them with chopmarks. In this era several American dealers were importing trade dollars from Hong Kong, and the selection of dates represented those generally available in the Orient at the time:
1873 Unc. $32.50.
1873-S AU $39.00, Eli $30.00.
1874-S Unc. $25.00, AU $18.00, VF $10.00.
1874-S Unc. two chops $16.00, AU chop $11.50, EF chop $9.50.
1874-CC EF $32.00.
1875-CC AU $30.00, EF $24.00, VF $17.50.
1875-S Unc. $21.00, AU $15.00, EF $12.00, VF $8.95.
1875-S Unc. 2 chops $14.00, AU chop $11.00.
1876 EF, nicks $7.00.
1876-CC EF $25.00, VF $19.00.
1876-S Unc. $18.00, AU $13.00, VF $8.95.
1877-CC Unc. scarce $100.00, VF many tiny nicks $20.00.
1877-S Unc. $17.00, Unc. Proof surface $19.00, AU $12.00, EF $9.95.
1878-S Unc. $17.50, Unc. Proof surface $19.00, AU $14.00.
The December 1960 issue of The Numismatist carried an advertisement from James Incorporated, Louisville, Kentucky, offering the following trade dollars for sale. Undoubtedly, these were recently imported from the Orient at the time. "In most in-stances we do have more than one each," the solici-tation noted.
1874-CC EF $82.00, VF $23.50.
1874-S AU $16.95, EF $13.95, VF $9.95.
1875-CC EF $24.50, VF $17.50.
1875-S AU $14.95, EF $12.95, VF $8.95.
1876-S AU $14.95, EF $12.95, VF $8.95.
1877 VF $9.50.
1877-S EF $11.95, VF $8.95.
In the July 1961 issue of The Numismatist, B.M. Douglas, Washington, D.C., advised readers in as follows in his advertisement: "We have just obtained another lot of trade dollars. Now is the time to obtain these ... " Undoubtedly these were imports from the Orient. The listing is as follows:
1873 EF $17.50, Unc. $35.00
1873-S EF $32.00.
1874-DD EF $35.00
1874-S EF $14.00, AU $19.00.
1875-CC Fine $15.00, VF $22.00, EF $28.00.
1875-S EF $12.95, AU $17.00.
1876-CC VF $22.00, EF $31.00.
1876-S EF $12.00, AU $16.00, Unc. $21.00.
1877-S EF $10.00, AU $13.00.
1878-S EF $10.00, AU $13.00, Unc.. $18.00.