1880 Trade Dollar - 1880 Trade $1 NGC PF63 CAC. This Choice Proof 1880 Trade Dollar comes with the provenance of the famous Eric P. Newman Collection. The coin is lightly toned with shades of silver, lavender, and light tan. Original mint luster is visible within its devices. The luster and colors affirm the coins originality. The surfaces are clean for the grade with no notable contact marks and few visible hairlines. As expected, the strike is excellent. Full details are present on Libertys head, the centers of the stars, and the eagles feathers especially the legs. The CAC sticker indicates that this is a premium quality coin that fully merits the assigned grade.
 
William Barber designed the Trade Dollar. The obverse shows a female figure of Liberty holding a LIBERTY inscribed ribbon. She is seated on a bale of cotton tied with ropes. On another ribbon at the foot of the bale is the motto IN GOD WE TRUST. Liberty faces left, perhaps to the Pacific Ocean or China. She wears a beaded coronet similar to the one on the double eagle. In her hand, which is extended, she holds an olive branch, symbol of peace. Behind her left hand is a sheaf of wheat. Around her are thirteen stars interrupted by the olive branch and Liberty head. They are spaced four, two and seven. The date is below the motto. The reverse shows an eagle facing right. In its right talons are three arrows, an error from the heraldic point of view. The left talons hold another olive branch. Around the top border is the inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Below the inscription is a banner with the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM. Below the olive branch and arrows is an inscription 420 GRAINS, 900 FINE. Dentils are around the periphery of both sides, and the edge is reeded.
 
During the late 1860s there was extensive trade between American merchants and China. The Chinese suppliers distrusted paper currency and preferred to receive payment in silver coin. At the time, the Liberty Seated dollar weighed 412.5 grains with 371.25 grains of silver. Thousands of them were exported to the Orient, where most were melted for bullion. Most Chinese merchants preferred the Mexican eight reales, which were slightly heavier and contained slightly more than 377 grains of silver. Chinese bankers and businessmen agreed to take United States silver dollars only at a discount. In order to remedy this situation, Congress, encouraged by the silver-mining interests in the West, felt that a heavier trade or commercial dollar was needed. The result was a Trade Dollar coin containing 378 troy grains of silver, slightly higher than the Mexican coinage.
 
Eric P. Newman, born May 25, 1911, a collector and numismatist who amassed one of the finest collections of United States coins and paper money,  is one of the few and the most recent person to have owned all five 1913 Liberty Head nickels; however, his favorite coin is a unique 1792 gold pattern which belonged to George Washington. In November 2013, Newman sold his 1,800 piece collection at auction for $23 million in a two-day sale in New York City. Coins from the Newman collection have been certified by NGC and bear a specially designed logo which features his name and initials, EPN. 

In its population report, as of December 2013, CAC shows 9 1880 proof Trade Dollars confirmed at the PF63 grade level. Less than 6% of all certified NGC and PGCS 1880 proof Trade Dollars have been given CAC stickers.