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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Marsyas Mike, post: 7629382, member: 85693&quot;]Silver minors were chopmarked, but they are hard to find.&nbsp; I have a couple of them, but unfortunately, I never got around to photographing them.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m a bit rusty on my chopmark collecting knowledge, but I seem to recall Frank Rose discussing the topic - silver coins (&quot;dollars/8 reales&quot;) were what the Chinese merchants and what European and American merchants were sending in for trade.&nbsp; But sometimes it seems that minor silver was used, either to &quot;top off a keg&quot; or the pocket change carried by sailors, merchants, etc.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Rose speculates (again, as I recall) that most of the minor coins that the Chinese merchants obtained were melted down and not chopped.&nbsp; Thus the scarcity of chopped examples.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>From what I have seen, Spanish-Colonial minors (2 reales mostly) are most commonly encountered.&nbsp; For reasons I cannot explain, US half dollars are not all that uncommon with chops; the Seated Liberty types, with the ones I&#039;ve seen dated in the 1850s.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I have a small Straits Settlements 10 cents with a tiny chop.&nbsp; These and Hong Kong small silvers can be found with these tiny chops (check your local dealer&#039;s stock - they are not all that uncommon).&nbsp; The dates are much later than the Spanish-Colonial minors, and the chops minuscule.&nbsp; My guess (only a guess) is that there was some other mercantile practice involved here.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Fake chops (and countermarks) are becoming a problem - chopping a common minor and making it a rare chopped specimen is a tempting way to make a dishonest buck.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks for sending those links - there is some good information there - my information dates back mostly from the pre-Internet era, which was a long time ago! </p><p><br /></p><p>Welcome to Coin Talk![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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