The seller says this coin was found in a box in the attic of an old house. I have no reason to doubt this; it has a very dark, and original patina. It's so hard to find Trade Dollars that haven't been messed with. Anyway, after some questions/answers I felt comfortable enough to place a strong bid and won it on eBay. 1874-P, XF IMO, although a TPG would probably knock it down for the dark toning. Nice P mint trade dollars pre-1877 are not easy to find.(Dang! lint on the reverse!) In hand, it has prooflike reflectance under all the toning. The axial images give a better idea of this:
The respected TPGs probably wouldn't knock the grade down for the dark toning. What they might do is put it in a "Genuine" slab because the dark toning obscures detection of possible cleaning. I ran into that once with an 1894 Morgan, but that was back in the days when the only option was a body bag.
That coin has got a great look IMO, love those colors and it is getting harder and harder to find nice coins with original surfaces.
Good point, Kanga. I would hope that wouldn't happen, because the only marks I see under the tarnish are normal circulation marks. But when they spend 15 sec per coin, who knows?
The 1874 is a very tough date. On my monitor the rims of the coin appear much lighter than the body of the coin; is this just an artifact of the imaging process or might the coin have been in some type of holder?
That's the 2nd 1874 trade dollar in XF I've ever seen. I bought the first. Rare coin. Very rare. Amazingly, not incredibly valuable. But try and find another one.
I don't have a habit of doing the "Nice Coin!" type of posts. But I'll make an exception. That is one of the best looking coins I've ever seen!
Appreciate the comments, folks! What I thought was a fine scratch on the reverse from the 9 down to the D and actually to the rim, appears on more careful inspection to be a strike through, perhaps a fiber or very fine wire. I believe the mark to the left of the eagle's head is also a strike-through. TomB- yes the rims are a bit bright, maybe from being tightly stored in a 2x2 for a long time? Kinda makes you wonder about the whole "box in the attic" deal. This particular year/MM is very hard to come by-- you see a lot more CC issues up for sale. This was the largest P mintage (900 and some thousand) up until the massive 1877 production.
IIRC, most of the 1874Ps were shipped to India where many were melted and/or counterstamped. Very, very few stayed in the US, much less circulated. Again, great find...Mike
I wasn't paying much attention to the early P mint trades, until I realized how scarce they are. This is the first 74-P I can remember seeing on eBay in a very long time. Bowers, in his "Guide," p.374, says that "Most were shipped to China." and says that it is the "Most common chopmarked Philadelphia mint Trade Dollar, one of the most common of all chopmarked trade dollars." This would suggest that un-chopmarked examples are rather hard to find. He estimated 2,500-4,500 survivors from VF through AU. I am still surprised at how a coin can be so dark and yet have so much underlying surface reflectivity.
All this chat about rarity caused me to look at what I have for my type set. It's an 1877-S. At least from the strike figures in the Red Book, it appears to be the most common.
That is such a nice coin it made it on to the PCGS forum. Well done and 45 all day. I will post my most recent Ebay trade cherry. It is also a rare one but in a different way, the later Philly Trades didn't make it overseas and the 77 is scarce with original skin and a chop esp one so choice. Now to kick it up a notch it is the super rare 1877 DDO FS-101 and it is most likely the only one know with a chop mark as there are only a few dozen known at all. Bonus points if anyone knows where the doubling is? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200469227387&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
Thank you for the correction! Axial lighting does that to photos, as does an old cleaning and retoning.
Correct plus the ropes are all doubled to the north on the hey bail and all of the wheat stalks. Liberty and the Motto are doubled too but due to them being incused it looks quite different. In hand the bottom right 1/4 is quite doubled.
