1875 Trade Dollar (1876 Trade $1) NGC PF66. This rare, proof 1875 Trade Dollar has a cameo look because of the lightly toned devices that are set against darker fields for the background. The devices are copper colored while the fields are dark grey with hints of blue, green, rose, and tan. Satiny mint luster is seen on the devices on both sides. As expected for a proof coin, the strike is full and sharp. Despite the scarcity of gem proofs in the 1873 to 1877 years, this superior coin is an obvious exception.

The Coinage Act of 1873 authorized the trade dollar. It was to weigh 420 grains of 90% silver. Regular dollars in circulation weighed 412.5 grains. Trade dollars were minted for use abroad, especially in China, where merchants preferred silver to gold. Paper money was not accepted. The trade dollar was discontinued because the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 required the mint to purchase millions of ounces of silver and resume the production of standard dollars each year. Except for proofs made for collectors, the trade dollar was discontinued in order to purchase millions of ounces of silver and resume the production of standard dollars each year. Except for proofs made for collectors, the trade dollar was discontinued in 1878. Proof coinage continued until 1885.

Designed by William Barber, the obverse shows a seated figure of Liberty. She is wearing a classic chiton, which was a garment of ancient Greece worn full-length by women. She sits barefooted, enthroned on a bale of cotton with a shock of grain behind her. The grain rests on a grassy plot. To the left of her legs is the ocean. She wears a coronet with her hair knotted and falling in curls over her back. In her right hand she holds a branch of olive. In her left she holds a banner inscribed LIBERTY. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST is imprinted on a scroll at the base. She is surrounded by thirteen six-pointed stars interrupted by the olive branch and her head. On the reverse there is a defiant eagle. It neck is turned to the right. In its right talon it holds three arrows and a laurel in the left. Under the eagle the weight and fineness is inscribed. Over its head is the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM on a scroll. Around the top is the inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. At the bottom the denomination appears, written as TRADE DOLLAR.

In his book Numismatic Art in America, Cornelius Vermeule, a curator at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, describes the trade dollar. As a coin intended for circulation in a special market, the trade dollar was in many respects like a commemorative issue. At least these handsome coins afforded the designers in the Mint an opportunity to break away from the usual seated Liberty of the silver and the diademed head of that divine creature that graced the gold, or the Liberty in Indian bonnet that had become a part of the bronze penny or cent.

With an original mintage of 700, all 1875 proof trade dollars are rare. In its population report, NGC has 5 certified in proof 66 with 4 better. At PCGS there are 4 with 1 better. These numbers do not account for crossovers or resubmissions.