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<h2>Q. David Bowers</h2>The following narrative, with minor editing, is from my "Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia" (Wolfeboro, NH: Bowers and Merena Galleries, Inc., 1993): Coinage Context Status of the trade dollar: By 1877 the Act of July 22, 1876 demonetizing the trade dollar was old business, trade dollars circulated within the United States only at a discount from face value, and coinage was intended solely for export to the Orient. However, generous numbers found their way into domestic commerce. In June 1877, Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman stated that there was no further export demand for the trade dollar, an opinion that was at sharp odds with that of Mint Director Dr. Henry Linderman (see testimony reprinted under Additional Information below). In October 1877 Sherman directed that silver deposited for coinage into trade dollars would no longer be paid in trade dollars at the coinage mints or the assay office. The Annual Report of the Director of the Mint for 1878 said that when this order reached the Philadelphia Mint and New York Assay Office in October 1877 "there was due depositors for bullion previously deposited at these institutions 590,795 trade dollars." The superintendent of the Philadelphia Mint was directed to pay for these in bars, or in trade dollars, only "upon satisfactory evidence being given that the same would be exported." Apparently, many depositors provided such evidence, as the report continues: "The bullion was accordingly coined, the settlement made with the depositors; the last coinage for this purpose [13,000 pieces] being executed at Philadelphia in the beginning of December 1877." It later developed that this "satisfactory evidence" was in some instances fabricated, and that the recipients sold many coins at premiums above bullion value, but below face value, to domestic factory owners, mine owners, et al., who exploited their employees by paying the coins out in wages at $1 each (see details under Additional Information, 1876 above). In the meantime, demand for trade dollars for export continued (see testimony reprinted below), and the years 1877 and 1878 were to see the largest production figures of the denomination, the majority from San Francisco. 1877 circulation strike mintage: Due to the uncertain market for trade dollars and Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman's negative opinion concerning the denomination, relatively few were struck in the first half of the year. Of the total annual production of 3,039,000 coins, just 654,000, or only about one-fifth of the total was produced from January through June; see monthly figures under Summary of Characteristics below. Many of the remaining 2,584,000 went into domestic circulation. The production quantity was far and away a record for a Philadelphia Mint trade dollar, and was the only issue to exceed the one million mark. Many were exported, although, as noted, some were illegally sold domestically. Quantities of the latter were distributed in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, among other Eastern states. Numismatic Information Circulated grades: The 1877 trade dollar is very common in circulated grades. I estimate that of the levels from VF-20 to AU-58, 20,000 or more exist. Chopmarked pieces are scarcer than the high mintage would suggest. This reflects lessened demand in China, or increased diversion to domestic circulation, or both. Mint State grades: Despite its record high mintage for a Philadelphia coin of this denomination, the 1877 trade dollar is a major rarity in MS-65 grade. I estimate that just four to eight are known. Until the rarity of circulation strikes of Philadelphia Mint coins began to be studied in the 1970s, emerging almost as a science in the 1980s, the 1877 was dismissed as a common date