1878-S $1 Trade Dollar Ungraded .900 Silver Coin KM # 108

1878-S $1 
Trade Dollar
 .900 Silver Coin

Country: United States

Year: 1878

Mint: San Francisco

Series: Trade

Denomination: ($1.00 One Dollar)

Grading Company: Uncertified

Coin Grade: Ungraded
Fineness: 0.900
Weight: 27.2 grams
Diameter: 38.1
Total Mintage: 4,162,000

Description:

By February 22, 1878, when Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman halted trade dollar mintage, the San Francisco Mint had already made 1,695,819 pieces. This branch did not end production until early April; by then the total was 4,162,000, nearly a record production (the fourth highest in the series).

By the time that the last 1878-S trade dollar fell from the dies, coins of this denomination valued at over $36 million had been produced, a staggering sum, and an amount over four times greater than all of the silver dollars that had been coined from 1794 until the denomination was suspended in 1873.

In a way it is curious that the trade dollar denomination was suspended at the very height of its success, but such was (and is) politics. The Bland-Allison Act offered greater opportunities for the silver market than did the trade dollar legislation; now, with the Bland-Allison Act and the Morgan dollar, the government was forced to buy silver and make silver dollars. It was never forced to make trade dollars.

Quantities melted: It is believed that quantities of this issue were melted at the San Francisco Mint, but no records have been seen. Quantities of 1878-S trade dollars remained in commercial channels in the Orient through the 1950s.

Inventory # LVS9687