Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 3647769, member: 66&quot;]Because you couldn&#039;t take your silver to the mint and get standard silver dollars anymore. The mint ended the free coinage of silver in 1853.&nbsp; If you had silver you could either sell it in the marketplace, which most of the time gave you less than a dollar for the amount of silver in a standard dollar, or sell it to the mint at about the same rate. IF they wanted it.&nbsp; After 1853 the government bought silver and produced coins for their own account and they made the money on the seigniorage.&nbsp; The trade dollar was once again free coinage of silver.&nbsp; The early ones were mostly made for export.&nbsp; The Chinese would only sell for silver, not gold, and the traders had to pay a premium for the preferred spanish/mexican pesos.&nbsp; After about 1875 the silver in a trade dollar was worth less than a dollar, but it was still &quot;free coinage&quot; so you could take the mint 80 cents worth of silver to the mint and they would give you back &quot;dollars&quot; free of charge!&nbsp; and at that time they were still legal tender in the US.&nbsp; Once they were no longer legal tender and the mint would no longer make them except for export, the mine owners kept bringing in the silver, saying it was for export, get their trade dollars, and then circulate them here anyway.&nbsp; 20 cent profit on every coin passed.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in