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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;smokeriderdon, post: 1159178, member: 29602&quot;]Trade dollars were originally created to use in trade in China. It was a good idea, but it wasn&#039;t carried out correctly and the individual responsible for the trades continuing to be made was making a lot of money off of them. It is a really interesting story, and one too long and involved to type up here. There is a fair decent write up on Wikipedia. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Anyway, the ones that did actually make it to China were chopped to show they were real silver. The Chinese businessman would take a punch unique to him and hammer it into the coin once he was certain the coin was real silver. There are examples out there literally covered in chop marks. The most valuable ones only have one or two marks on them. One of the few times post mint damage actually adds to the value of the coin. but after 3 or so marks, the value then begins to go down.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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