Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States - A Complete Encyclopedia

Varieties:
OBVERSE TYPE I: RIBBON ENDS POINT LEFT, 1873-1876
REVERSE TYPE I: BERRY BELOW CLAW, 1873-1876

Business Strikes:
1. Breen-5788. Comprises part of the 149,000 delivered in May. Walter H. Breen examined under 20 Type 1/1 coins from 1988 to date. Very rare; possibly rarer in all grades than the 1878-CC trade dollar. Trade dollar specialist Joseph Rust examined three certified MS-64 1875 trade dollars and found that none was of the III type (all were 1/II). Accurate population studies remain to be conducted for 1/1, although for starters it seems to the author that 1/1 is at least 5 to 10 times rarer unchopmarked than 1/11. Unfortunately, the leading certification services do not distinguish the types when they certify trade dollars. Believed to be more available chopmarked (but still very scarce) than unmarked. Presumably, most of the mintage went to China; only a small number of 1/1 coins circulated domestically.

Proofs:

1. Patched letters reverses: General type of Breen-5788. With reverse of 1873 No.2 (and 1874 No.2).

No accurate censuses have been taken, and earlier it was thought that only a small fraction of surviving Proofs are of the Type 1/1 configuration. However, a survey of auction appearances taken by Mark Borckardt in 1992 suggests that 62% of the 1875 Proofs are of this style, and 38% Type 1/11. As virtually no one has collected Proof trade dollars by reverse types, there has been no meaningful price differentiation in the market prices as of 1992.

2. Perfect reverse: New die, normal (not patched) letters. Narrow area betweeneagle's tail and eagle's dexter leg polished (compare this to 1873 Proof Reverse No.2, which does not have this polished). Tiny chip out of lower part of the top side of the top right serif in F of OF. Die flaw resembling an apostrophe to the right of R in PLURIBUS. Bottom of first 0 in 900 partially missing.

OBVERSE TYPE I: RIBBON ENDS POINT LEFT, 1873-1876
REVERSE TYPE II: NO BERRY BELOW CLAW, 1875-1885

Business strikes:

1. Breen-5789. Type I/II probably comprises all of the 69,000 delivered later in the year, and possibly part of the 149,000 made earlier. Much less rare than TypeI/I; since 1988 Walter H. Breen has examined over 100 in all grades.' This is a change from the information presented in his Encyclopedia, p. 468, which stated this: "Type II [reverse] business strikes are rarer than 1878-CC." Cf. Auction '87: 1835, Uncirculated. However, chopmarked pieces may be very rare; as of 1991, Walter H. Breen knew of only one.

Proofs:
1. Breen-5789. Type I/II. Believed to comprise about 38% of the 700 (or 900?) Proofs struck of this date, per a 1992 survey of auction appearances by Mark Borckardt. Many are weak at the top of the obverse, including Miss Liberty's head.

1875 Trade Dollar: Market Values