i wanted to add another coin to my collection and decided to purchase an 1876 trade dollar ( P mint) mainly to the fact that it is the centennial year. paid $130 USD upon inspection and research from many places but mostly this thread. http://www.cointalk.com/t63695/ i used a high magnification to inspect it, i noticed the female had 4 fingers AND the liberty ribbon points were pointing left. so i sent it out to ANACS to verifiy that it is authentic and paid extra for variety research. they gave it a grade of AU55, cleaned with a type 1 OB and type 2 REV. but no mention of how or why the combination. any thoughts? how'd i do on the price i paid?
An AU Trade dollar unless it was very harshly cleaned , and I don't think yours is because I believe ANACS would say harshly cleaned is a good buy for $130 . Do you have any pictures of it ? rzage
And as to the rareness of it , I have a rare 1875-S , with small S and I think a type 2 reverse , but from what I heard they really don't trade for more because most people don't collect Trade dollars by type . JMO rzage
I am aware of a variety of 1876 trade dollar with four fingers and the ribbon ends pointing left. It was discovered by William Cowburn and if my memory serves me correctly it is a proof only variety. It was announced at a presentation he made at the Central States show in Columbus OH in 2007 I believe.
got some photos here's what ANACS wrote for my variety research: {Coin Comments: The obverse is the Type 1 style. What appears to be a "4th Finger" may be a random die gouge, or it may have been an intentional attempt to add another finger. However, the style of the branch and the berries is definitely Type 1, as are the ends of the ribbon. Needs more study -- if the extra finger was an intentional addition to the die, it might be a variety like the extra leaf Wisconsin quarters.} i don't have a good camera so the photos are from my cell phone through a 7X magnifier, thats why there's some glare and shadows.
I understand that there are a number of subvarieties of the trade dollar types, but I have not studied them much at all. A member of the CU forum, keoj, who is also active in the Gobrecht Society, has researched these in a lot of detail, and collects them too. I'll check Vol. I of Bowers' Silver Dollar opus when I get home.
Here is Keoj's reply to my query: "This variety was reported ~2-3 years ago in the Gobrecht Journal. Some claim that it is a I-to-II transitional die. It is not. It is a Type I obverse with a recut finger. All other diagnostics on the coin are a Type I obverse. This is a pretty scarce variety that doesn't come up often. A friend of mine owned a couple and spoke to me about this variety for several years before I listened to what he was describing. " I regard Keoj as the resident expert on Trade Dollar varieties on the CU forum.
It might have a premium to someone who collects the varieties. How much I don't know, as you won't find any of the tpg's offering to attribute them. You could join the CU forum and query keoj by p.m.
