Trade Dollars and Liberty Seated.. I mean. What's all the hype?

I think these coins are ugly.

Plain and simple.

Why is there sooooo much hype around them?

Maybe my opinion doesn't count in the bigger scheme of things but still, how do people find value in these? Especially with all the fakes sitting out there.

 

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Different strokes for different folks, that's all. :thumb:

 

It's all a matter of personal opinion. I personally like both the designs, plus the trade dollar has a great history behind it.

I also wouldn't really say there's soooo much hype for them, compared to the survival rates. The majority of Trade dollar dates can be found in MS60 for around $1,500.

 

Right-o.

In addition... some things are an acquired taste. I used to think Matron head large cents were ugly, but I've acquired a real interest in them. Same with Barber coinage.

Personally, I've always loved the Trade and Seated designs.

 

Yea, they are a bit ugly.

 

Since you like carved coins like hobo nickels, maybe you'd like trade dollars and seated coins a little better if they were carved too??? Lots of them are out there as "potty dollars." some of them are done pretty well and many are too explicit to post here in the forum as they would violate rule 2

 

I find Trade Dollars interesting, but only have one for my type set.

Seated Liberty issues have never really grabbed me.
There's SO many of them in each face value.
I like shorter sets that I have a chance of completing.

 

THey are neat because Morgans are common as dirt.

 

I opnly have one Trade dollar and I love it , can't wait till I find a nice 63 and the same goes for the seated coinage , each to his own .
rzage

 

Good. More for me.

 

Trade dollars

I think they are beautiful ,try finding a DMPL example .

 

My Seated Dollar is definitely proof like, but probably not quite DMPL... not sure either PCGS/NGC denotes these as proof like though, but it's still a sweet coin I think:

 

I didn't know there was so much hype?

I halfway agree though. There are supposedly more fake Trade dollars out there now than real ones.

The Liberty Seated is just a classic design of U.S coinage that was around for a long time and served the nation well. Some people like it some dont.
I never really cared for Trade dollars myself. After I learned more about them in a book, I liked them even less.

A little history that I bet you didnt know....

FWIW, they were never intended to circulate in this country, but they were legal tender here to start.
They circulated mainly out west and in the northeast. After the value of silver declined severely, merchants would rip off their poor immigrant workers by paying them in Trade dollars.

The situation got messy as people wanted to pay their workers with them but the treasury would only pay out bullion value for them and nobody wanted to accept them in transactions for purchases.

Refusal of Trade dollars for pay could lead to dismissal. While if stores declined them, it was bad for business.

The treasury finally stopped making them and demonetized them in 1878, hoping they would go away. But they remained a nuisance for another decade.

It got to be such a hassle that the U.S. government eventually offered to buy them back in 1887 at face value over a 6 month period (at a loss to the government), just to get them out of circulation!
Speculators found out in advance, bought all they could for bullion value and hoarded them. Then stood in line to cash them in to the treasury at face value for a nice profit.

All that were turned in were melted down to be used in fractional silver coins. Ironically a lot of our Liberty Seated coinage you've complained about here, were once Trade dollars. Now do you hate them twice as much?

Yeah, the Trade dollars served their purpose but weren't really a shining moment in U.S. history. More like an unwanted step-child. The design doesn't do anything for me. Never cared for the reverse and A LOT of fakes.

 

I don't see anything wrong with those designs. I actually like Seated coinage. Its all about personal opinion. But, Like Vess1, I didn't know there was so much hype! I haven't seen it.

 

Seated Dollar

Looks @ least to be Proof Like to me,beautiful ,my next target coin will be a seated dollar ,I like the obvers & reverse fields as well as the design.

 

I feel the same way about Morgans. Everybody seems to love them but the design just doesn't do anything for me. I have three, and I inherited all of them...I can't see spending the prices asked of them to aquire anymore, although maybe in 50 years when I've completed the smaller denomination coins I will have nothing left to buy except Morgans, LOL. EDIT: Let me clarify that: I don't really dislike Morgans. I just think that they are not the greatest design in US coinage and I think the prices asked for many of them are higher then they should be and therefore I don't buy them. If I found some in the condition I liked and at a price I feel is proper in relation to what the coin really should be, I WOULD buy them as my goal is eventually, when I am really old, to have complete sets of everything. It probably won't happen but I am now 25 (as of Today) and I have many decades of planned coin puchases so who knows what the future holds! I find the Peace dollar to be the best Dollar design in history FWIW.

Trade Dollars have a unique history in American coinage but dang, they are just too expensive for me. I am not going to spend the kind of money on a coin that could get me a classic car...it's just not going to happen, ever (If I had that kind of money to play with, it WOULD be on classic cars, not coins!)

I like seated coins but I find very few that fit the look I like, and even fewer fit the look I like at a price I can easily afford.

It's all a matter of personal opinion!

 

yup, fugly as can be... LOL
99% of my coins are dollars mostly because I can see them without a loupe and pick them up without using tweezers

 

I agree with BNB. I think both designs are some of the ugliest ever produced by the US Mint. I consider the Seated Liberty design hideous. I don't own and example of either design.

 

Trade Dollars have a unique history in American coinage but dang, they are just too expensive for me. I am not going to spend the kind of money on a coin that could get me a classic car...it's just not going to happen, ever (If I had that kind of money to play with, it WOULD be on classic cars, not coins
Happy Birthday,maybe you will get that classic car & find a nice coin under the back seat!
Who says "you can't have the best of both worlds,I like classic cars also & some day I may sell a few pieces of my collections & get that "Changler" !

 

Thanks Connor Boy that would be awesome, never know what will be hidden under those seats!