i am a guy far more drawn to the history that lives in his coins than I am the grade/quality. I have trade dollars with chop marks and just purchased a cool piece from a member here with chop marks. For me they add a new level of historical wonder to the piece. Question is this. A chop mark confirmed to various merchants of the day that the piece was verified for weight and purity..... A chop mark is basically a punch to my eyes. How was purity verified unless a small portion of the piece was sacrificed for testing? Did the punch process remove a small portion of the coin?
Yes Randy, the mark is evidence that a small amount of metal was taken out for testing. It was a sign to others that the coin is authentic. Some merchants insisted on doing their own test, so certain coins have several chopmarks.
