Silver Trade Coins Advice Please

[Paddy]

Hi all, 

Please be gentle this is my first post 🙄. 

I have some silver trade coins and wondered firstly if anyone knows much about them and if they are of any value other than the PM value. 

They look a bit grubby I'm assuming best to leave as they are? 

My dad collected lots of random things and these where in a amongst some other coins, so I don't really know much about them. 

Though it might be of interest to someone knowledgeable. 

Please see picture below. 

[sovereignsteve]

Trade dollars are great, I love 'em.

They are highly collected and many are worth good money. In fact all but the most worn will be worth a fair bit more than melt value.

The problem is they are highly faked.

I don't know when fakes first started appearing but if your dad had them a good while there's a fair chance they are genuine.

[Paddy]

Thanks Sovereignsteve I have done the ping test, magnet test and weighed them and all seems well. Also he probably had them for 20+ years. 

 

[LiquidMetalsUK]

I like these to. Stuning coins imo. 

[Paddy]

Thank you. So is it best to leave them in the condition that they are in? 

[sixgun]

19 minutes ago, Paddy said:

Thank you. So is it best to leave them in the condition that they are in? 

Don't touch them you will wreck the coins and their value.

[Paddy]

I thought that would be the case thank you. As I have quite a few I might list some for sale. Anyone have any ideas of what a reasonable sale price would be on TSF or should I just try an ebay auction? 

[Seasider]

https://thesilverforum.com/topic/12893-detecting-fake-british-trade-dollar/?tab=comments#comment-160585

I am not sure if this will work as a link but you might like to have a look at this video on detecting fake trade dollars.  If not search for fake trade dollars and it should pop up.  It has the tests you have done already and one other.

[Paddy]

Thanks yes I saw a video by backyard bullion that was very good with the same test. 

 

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Added 0 minutes later...

And the results are in.... 

[HighlandTiger]

When I first started collecting silver, I found a few of these in an antiques market in Bristol, Bought them and thought I'd got a bargain. However they turned out to be fake. I still have them in my bedside cabinet to remind me to test everything and believe nothing. I lost a good few quid on them, but I'll never sell them, as they are great at keeping me grounded. 

[Paddy]

Yes unfortunately this is the world we live in now some copies are so good you need to be an expert to tell them apart. Not just coins but everything from watches to laundry powder and even medicines which is a bit scary. 

Made up a little sheet which I found quite interesting. Ping test is obviously not measurable so need to compare but the rest shows which metals come close in mimicking gold and silver in different ways. 

[RacerCool]

I really like the trade dollars! I had one once, and would like to get another again, especially one with chop marks on it. 

Your collection could be worth a fair bit of cash, especially that one with the chop marks (the Asian characters stamped into the coin), and if you search for "sold" prices on eBay, you can get an idea what they tend to go for if they're in decent condition. 

These coins were intended primarily for circulation in the far East, and so banks and merchants would often stamp their mark into a coin when they tested it and deemed it legitimate. 

[Paddy]

That's really interesting I wondered what that mark was on the coin. I will have a look and see on ebay then post up on the for sale here first. 😬