Good day, mates! This belongs to a friend who knows even less than I do about numismatics, but "it was Dad's" is all I have...he's 81, his pappy died ~30 years ago. The coin is in reasonable condition to my eyes; that single chop-mark is why it's before this forum. A quick look says a simple arrow pointed right...but I'm less sure about that assumption the more I look at it. The mark was deeply stamped, resulting in damage to the word FINE on the reverse, as well as a slight 'bubble' at that spot. The obverse I believe shows a single stamp was used to make all 4 'brushstrokes' of that symbol at one blow, but I am not sure about that, either. If it is not an arrow, then it seems likely the mark is an Asian character...which, singly or in groups or series, I think was pretty common on these as well as a variety of other roughly similar coins used as trade currency globally during that period. Can anyone please help me to identify the mark, an' its significance on this dollar? Your comments are all most welcome, including grading estimates...Thanks for lookin'! Edit: Weight is 27.3 grams; diameter is ~38mm.
I'm not an expert on these but my hunch is that the chopmark represents the merchant's name who certified it, and maybe not an actual letter/word of Chinese or other language.
That was likely stamped in China...... maybe the person who stamped it said "take it back ov'air to the US!" - LOL, it's marking is worth a thousand words. I grade it AU details, cleaned - that shouldn't hurt the value too bad, as an uncleaned example can command a nice premium since most remaining US Trade dollars are cleaned. CDNs are $385/500 for AU50, $350/455 for XF40, so it's a 3-digit beauty either way. Depending on the collector, the chopmark may be worth more.
I'd call it AU details (cleaned/polished). That is an interesting chopmark. I don't know much about these, but there is a chopmarked coins Subreddit frequented by some real experts on chops. You might post it over there.
Well. Not much info. out there on chopmarks besides that it's considered damage and I did find one book that cost around $64!
A great suggestion...which I followed up with a post there last night. Several responses, all agreeing it's been cleaned, an' that the single chop may be an Asian character. I'll wait a few days, then post here the most pertinent of their comments. Thanks, all!