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

1885 Trade Dollar

Coinage Context

No trade dollars officially struck: In the year 1885 there was no business strike mintage of trade dollars, nor was there an official Proof coinage.

Numismatic Information

1885 trade dollars surface: Proof trade dollars dated 1885 first became known to the numismatic fraternity when five pieces came on the market in 1908. These were said to have been the property of William Idler, old-time Philadelphia coin dealer. Presumably, Idler had close connections with the Mint and obtained them from an employee or officer, possibly Superintendent A. Loudon Snowden. From Idler they went to his son-in-law, Capt. John W. Haseltine, and Haseltine's partner, Stephen K. Nagy.

Most likely 1885 Proof trade dollars were struck early in that year, after the January 2, 1885 destruction of the 1884 obverse and reverse die (for the 1885 is from a different reverse than used in 1884), but before Col. A. Loudon Snowden, superintendent of the Philadelphia Mint since 1879, turned in his resignation in June 1885. His successor as superintendent, Daniel M. Fox, was very circumspect and proper, and no hint of making "fancy pieces" ever surfaced during his administration. (Carl W.A. Carlson in his description of the Olsen specimen (see registry below) sold in the French Family Collection, Stack's, 1989, suggests that coinage was accomplished in the first half of the 1885 year.)

No Proof 1885 trade dollars are listed in Mint reports or records, and it is supposed that the coinage was unofficial, although not illegal. Today, specimens are highly prized as great rarities and are among the most famous and desirable of all United States silver coins.

Virgil M. Brand: Brand, the famous Chicago collector who owned five specimens of the rare 1884 trade dollar, is believed to have owned two or possibly three 1885 trade dollars. However, record of just one transaction is now at hand: the coin purchased on April 26, 1911 from Edgar H. Adams for $750. (Information from the Brand estate papers, courtesy of David Enders Tripp in a communication dated February 7, 1992.)How the Brand specimen(s) of the 1885 trade dollar fit into the register of coins given below is not known at the present time. One 1885 trade dollar, Brand inventory No. 57897, was given to Virgil's brother Armin in the split of Virgil's estate. By September 6, 1938 the coin had been sold through Burdette G. Johnson as agent. (Information concerning the specific date of sale and the buyer may be in the Brand papers in the American Numismatic Society.) Henry O. Granberg, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, is known to have had at least one 1885 trade dollar and possibly two.

Also see comments under previous listing for the 1884 trade dollar, a closely related coin.