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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 1724174, member: 66&quot;]I think you will find that his &quot;420 grains 900 fine&quot; comment was made because that is what the coin says on it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yep definitely sounds like a box or opium dollar.&nbsp; They are very popular&nbsp; items and can often bring anywhere from $200 to $500 depending on how well made they are.&nbsp; Some are crude, others are pieces of fine workmanship.&nbsp; I don&#039;t know when they first started making these items but I do know there was a booth at the Columbian Exposition that manufactured them for a small fee with the customer providing the coins, and the merchant keeping the scraps.&nbsp; Trade dollars were popular for this type of item because they were larger and only worth their bullion value, about 80 cents apiece, cheaper than using two silver dollars.&nbsp; Often times the photo inside has been lost over the years and the box is empty, sometimes there is a border frame piece inside but usually not. On of the most impressive ones I have seen instead of a photo had an engraving of the portrait on the inside.&nbsp; And the engraving was an excellent piece of workmanship.</p><p><br /></p><p>Some images of a box or opium dollar open so you can see what they look like inside and how they are put together.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://www.thestujoecollection.com/images/dollars/td4.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="http://www.thestujoecollection.com/images/dollars/td1.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q320/BillJones_album/Dollars/BoxTradeDollarOpen.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTINdc0suHrJLdYlLT7FrpHNA--ezd5KpZmNZDv-2pYloXmV41P" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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