Q. David Bowers
"In the following table, which exhibits the imports and exports of trade dollars as far as known, the exports for the fiscal years 1874, 1875, and 1876 are partly estimates based upon information obtained by the director of the Mint from the collectors of customs at the ports of San Francisco and New York ...
"Of the total imports of trade dollars, 830,561 have been imported into the' United States since the. passage of the Act of March 3, 1887, authorizing their redemption. The amount imported each month from February 1 to September 4, 1887, is exhibited in the following table. . .
"919,459 have from time to time been deposited as bullion and melted at the mints and at the assay office at New York. The approximate amount so melted at each institution is exhibited in the following table. . .
"Information as to the number of trade dollars-melted at the assay office at New York and at the coinage mints, though comparatively full for the period since the Act of March 3, is incomplete as to any earlier period, no specific record having been kept of the number of trade dollars contained in miscellaneous silver deposits.
"The number of trade dollars redeemed by the Treasury of the United States under' the provisions of the Act of Match 3,1887, was 7,689,036, as follows ...
"When the measure for the redemption of trade dollars was before Congress, the Bureau of the Mint was called' upon for an estimate of the number of trade dollars which &ad passed into domestic circulation and were presumed to bestill in the hands of citizens of the United States pending the action of Congress upon the public question of their redemption.
"The approximate estimate of this bureau was some $7 million. This estimate was remarkably borne out by the actual redemption, this having amounted to $7,689,036, of which the value of $675,083 was imported from China and Japan subsequent to the passage of the act authorizing redemption. The total estimate by this Bureau was therefore within $13,953 of the final redemption.
"The close approximation of the estimate by this Bureau, as it has finally proved, is all the more noteworthy-from the well-known circumstance that this was far from conceded when first offered, another estimate by high authority having been some three times greater.
"The trade dollars redeemed, 7,689,036 in number, as previously stated, have been transferred to the mints or to the assay office at New York, and melted into bars ready for coinage.
"Of the trade dollars redeemed, the actual weight, after melting, as well as the legal weight and the loss in weight from abrasion and other causes, is exhibited in the following table ...
"It will be seen that the loss was 40,215.79 standard ounces of silver, equivalent to 45,961 trade dollars, an average abrasion of about six-tenths of 1 per cent, or about 2-1/2 grains per piece.
"If all of the trade dollars redeemed [are intended to] be coined into subsidiary silver coins of the United States, as at present, in order to meet the current demand for dimes, the seignorage to the government on such coinage will be, exclusive of operative wastage, $631,574.50. If coined into standard silver dollars the seignorage would have been $93,004.10."
The Effect of the 1887 Law
In The Numismatist, April 1923, Edward T. Newell, one of America's most prominent numismatic scholars of the era, gave his view of the later days of the trade dollar and legislation affecting it:
"Popular dissatisfaction with the trade dollar was perhaps responsible for the Act of February 19, 1887 [March 3, 1887 represented the final date on the legislation], which provided for its retirement. Section I stated 'that for a period of six months after the passage of this act, United States trade dollars, if not defaced, mutilated or stamped, shall be received at the office of the treasurer of the United States in exchange for a like amount, dollar for dollar, of Standard silver dollars, or of subsidiary coins of the United States.' (This act became a law without the approval of the president.)
"Robbing the trade dollar of its legal-tender quality did not remove it from circulation, but its life was full of hardships for the next few years. It was a despised coin, and while it circulated freely it was welcome nowhere. Many did not understand its status and did not take the trouble to learn it. Their chief concern was to get rid of them as fast as acquired, and this tended to make it circulate more freely than it previously had. Everybody seemed to have a trade dollar when making a purchase. It was really only a token-coin now, but it was a medium of exchange so long as accepted for goods. purchased, just the same as a piece of leather, or stone, or glass is a medium of exchange so long as people will accept it.
"It was seldom refused, but was often accepted under protest or with the inquiry, 'Is that the best you've got?' and then it was passed on to one's best friend at the first opportunity. There were many who insisted that the trade dollar was issued by the government and must be accepted when offered, legal tender or no legal tender. It was on this point that opinion differed and sometimes severed friendships. The 20-cent piece was a piker for causing arguments and disputes and all around ill-feeling compared with the trade dollar. At that time the bullion value of the coin was nearly a dollar, and the wise businessman felt that he stood to lose very little on them in any event and accepted them without question. But the bullion value gradually dropped lower and lower, and in 1887 it was thought the time had come for the government to take a more definite stand in regard to it, and a law was passed providing for their redemption as above stated.
"Although this act did not restore its legal-tender quality, it temporarily gave it respectability again. It once more became possible to tender it in payment for a purchase without feeling that you were making an enemy. People even smiled when one was offered them, and strange as it may seem after 10 years of abuse, merchants advertised 'Trade Dollar Taken at Par!' "
Recoinage of Trade Dollars 1887-1888
The Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, 1888, a James P. Kimball production, told more about the redemption of trade dollars:
"Trade dollars redeemed under the Act of March 3,1887 (24 Stats., 634) and remelted yielded 6,687,690.71 standard ounces of silver bullion, of which there has been recoined at Philadelphia and San Francisco to June 30 of the current calendar year 994,978.45 standard ounces, or 14.87%, namely, $1,040,920.30 of dimes, $194,500 of quarter dollars, and $2,500 of half dollars. (Apparently, most 1888-S quarters were made from melted-down trade dollars.)
"The seignorage or profit on this recoinage from March 3, 1887, to June 30, 1888, aggregates $94,438.67, net gain of about 8.3%, the average abrasion being about .006%."