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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;satootoko, post: 46467, member: 669&quot;]A great question trisha. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>In the later half of the 19th Century, and into the early 20th to some extent, silver coins circulated in the Far East at their bullion value, regardless of the country of issue.&nbsp; During that period a number of countries, including the U.S. from 1873-85, Japan from 1875-77, and Great Britain from about 1902-35 (I believe), issued coins which bore the denomination &quot;Trade Dollar&quot;, and had their silver weight in grains, and their fineness, as part of the design.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The U.S. and Japanese coins had 420 grains of pure silver, and the British were 416, all in a .900 silver/.100 copper alloy.</p><p><br /></p><p>In addition, Maria Therese thalers from Austria, and many other silver coins of similar size and composition, were widely used in international trade throughout Asia, the Middle East and Africa.&nbsp; The thalers were minted of .833 silver, and contained just over 3/4-oz. of pure silver, slightly less than the .78 oz Yen and the .7876 typical Trade Dollar.</p><p><br /></p><p>Japanese Yen from 1867 to 1914, composed of 416 grains of .900 silver, are frequently inaccurately advertised as &quot;Trade Dollars&quot; on EBay, Yahoo, etc.&nbsp; They were in fact widely circulated at their silver weight, and in fact were demonetized in Japan for part of that time.</p><p><br /></p><p>The related subject of &quot;chopmarks&quot; arises from the custom of Chinese merchants of the time period counterstamping their own marks onto coins they had handled, as a certification of their value.&nbsp; Millions of yen were also officially counterstamped by the Osaka and Tokyo mints with the Japanese character &quot;gin&quot; (silver) during the period of demonetization in Japan, which ended in 1897.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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