British Trade Dollar Year 1898 (Getting Scarce)

British Trade Dollar 1898 is a forth year issue.
This is a common date coin with a rather big mintage.

It recorded a total mintage of 21,545,564
This year British Trade Dollar has 2 varieties
Variety one: 1898 B from Bombay Mint
This is a commoner type of the 2.
B mint mark can be seen at the prong.
Compared to earlier years of 1895, 1896 and 1897.
The "B" can be seen more clearly for the subsequent year coins from 1898.
It also not as easily worn off (disappear).

This coin is came from a safety box that was cut open.
These coins is believed to be in the safe for decades.
The green spots are the old safe box paint.
The relative uncirculated nature of the coin shows the glorious luster.

Variety two: 1898 no mint mark
This variety is scarcer
It is minted from Calcutta Mint
The prong area is clean and flat.

Prong area is flat, no B

For British Trade Dollar year 1895, 1897, 1898; despite minted by Calcutta mint, there is no "C" mark on the side of the Brittania. The "C" mint mark only appears on british trade dollar minted on 1900, 1901 and 1902.

This type of no mint mark on prong variety is also seen on year 1925, 1929 and 1930 British Trade Dollar. However, for these 3 years, these no mint mark British Trade Dollars were minted by London Mint and not Calcutta Mint.

The most unique of all is 1900 no C, no B variety which is very rare.

British Trade Dollar Year 1897 (Getting Scarce)

British Trade Dollar year 1897 is the third year issue.
It has a large mintage of 21,286,427.
Please click here for full mintage table for BTD

There are 3 varieties of British Trade Dollar in 1897.
Exact amount for each varieties is unknown. As the 21 million quoted is a combined total mintage.

Variety One is 1897(B)
British trade dollar with a Bombay Mint Mark.
This is the commonest type.  Despite the big mintage of 21 million, 1897 British Trade dollar is a scarcer date.

This coin has good details of at least AU.
B mint mark can be seen at the prong.
However the unequal luster raised suspicion of this coin has been mildly dipped before.

The reverse also has uneven luster

Variety Two is 1897 no mintmark
This 1897 coin has no mint mark at the trident prong.
It is minted by Calcutta Mint.
This is the scarcer type to find in the market.

The prong area is flat. Without B mint mark.
There is no C mintmark as well for year 1895,1897 and 1898 coins although they are from calcutta mint
C mint mark only seen on coin struck on 1900,1901 and 1902.

Variety Three is 1897 overdate on 1896 coins
This overdate variety is one of the very rare type.
The "7" can be seen overstruck on a deleted "6" on the 1897 at the bottom of the Britannia.
In older days, is is costly and time consuming to reproduce a new die for coin manufacturing.

One of easiest way to produce a change in year on the coin, is using the old die for the previous year i.e.1896 and retooled the "6" into "7" which is the current year. This type of coin is called Overdate coins.

The overdate is seen at the 1897. 6 shadow is behind the 7

The existence of overdate for 1897/96 is not difficult to see, as the mintage jumped from 6 million for 1896 BTD to becomes 21 millions BTD in 1897. Hence there is a need for more die available for the increase in production.

The existence of overdates is also one of the interesting aspects of collecting British Trade Dollars.
These overdates has no known populations on its own, but it is generally very rare and difficult to find.

British Trade Dollar 1900 (Unique Year with 5 Varieties)

It is a pleasure to collect British Trade Dollar 1900. It takes a long time to complete a set of 5 varieties.
Some of the variants are very rare and considered as error coins.
There is a total of 9,106,619 british trade dollar minted for year 1900.
There is a subquoted amount of 363,372 coins minted for 1900 No B No C Variety, which is very rare.
Please click here for full BTD mintage table.


Variety 1: British trade dollar 1900 B
This is the Bombay mint coin. The commonest and usual type.
The B mint mark can be seen at the trident prong area.

The commonest variant with B at the center of the prong

The reverse of all the BTD are soimilar

Variety 2: British Trade Dollar 1900 C
For year 1900,1901 and 1902 British trade dollar minted from Calcutta.
There is a C mint mark at the space next to the outer side of the Brittania left leg and the shield.
This C mint mark indicates the Calcutta mint.
The usual trident prong area is flat and no mint mark.

This VF coins has the C mint mark preserved.
1900C has the highers value, followed by 1902C and then 1901C

The C mint mark is easily worn off as well after moderate circulation. The flat trident prong area may be the indication left for this type of coin.

Variety 3: British Trade Dollar 1900 No B No C
This variety recorded a quoted amount of 363,372 and is among the rarest.
This is difficult to find.
It is believed to be from Bombay mint, however the die containing the mint mark has worn off.
Hence it produced a special type (error variant) where the B mint mark is not seen at the trident prong.
The whole mint mark area at the prong is empty within. Left with a diamond shaped rim.
It is not C mint coin as well as the trident prong area is not flat and there is no C mark at the side of Britannia.

This fairly high grade coin has the usual diamond shaped at the prong
But the B is missing.
It is also different from 1900C where the prong is area is flat

One word of caution in getting this type of coins is the collector must get a fairly high grade coin in order to appreciate the empty mint mark area. Many 1900B with fair amount of circulation might have the B mint mark wearing off and give an impression of a 1900 No B No C mint mark coin.

As in this coin... is the B worn out or it is a no B no C variant.

Variety 4: British Trade Dollar 1900 over 1890 Overdate Variety
Year 1900 is at the turn of the century and this produced an unique overdate coins where 3 characters are changed on the original die.
This overdate variety is one of the rarest to find.
The overdates is not easy to identify and takes a bit of effort to make up.

The  overdates are not meant to be seen clearly.They are retooled to the current year date which is 1900. The 1890 at the background is the erased shadow.
Generally for the 1900/890 coin, the 9 over 8 is clearer to be seen. meanwhile the 0 over the 9 is very faint, but you can see the 9 tail shadow on the background.

The 8 shadow is seen behind the 9.
The original 9 shadow is behind the 0 (look for the tail of the 9)

Another intriguing thing of this overdate coin is 1890 coin does not exist.

Variety 5: British Trade Dollar 1900 over 1900 (based on KN Boon catalogue) or it also known as 1900 over 1000 (NGC census)  
This coin is also very rare variety.
It is probably a retooled die where the original die has worned out and the engraver recrafted the dates.
The coin showed a double shadow of 1900.
This coin is very difficult to find in the market,

There is shadows over the 9 and the 2 zeros.

End...
Hope you enjoy this post as much as I writing on it.

British Trade Dollar Year 1896 (Difficult year to find)

This is 2nd year issue for British trade dollar.
It has only 1 variety, i,e. 1896 (B) from Bombay mint

It has total mintage of 6,135,617. It is a rare year date.
Please click here for full mintage table and year of issues

Despite recorded double the mintage amount compared to 1895.
1896 BTD is much more difficult to find in the market and fetch a even higher price than 1895.

Same as 1895B, the B mint mark for 1896 is fainter than later years.
It can also easily worn off.

This is AU55 NGC certified coin. Faily good details
B mint mark in the circle is barely visible

The reverse

Compared with this VF coin. The B mint mark has worn out.

British Trade Dollar Year 1895 First Year

This is the inaugural year issue (first year issue).
This is a rare dates year with a mintage of 3,316,036.
There are 2 varieties of British trade dollar for the year 1895.
Please click here for full tables of mintage and years of issue.

The 2 varieties is differ at the mintmark
One is 1895(B), B at the prong indicate Bombay Mint
Another one is 1895 without mintmark from Calcutta Mint (clean prong area)

Compared to other years like 1899, 1900 and the later years, the B mint mark is not that easily seen for 1895. And the 1895B is more difficult to find, most likely the mark has worn off.

This coin is still available and can be found on the market occasionally.

I will not discuss much of the grading as everyone can have different opinions.
Please click here for BTD grading examples.

Variety 1:  1895 no mint mark, a cleaned before coin.

The reverse of the coins with fairly good details. 

 Variety 2: 1895 B - The B mint mark has worn off.

This is NGC certified XF details coin.
The B mint mark of the earlier years are quite easily worn off as in this one, the B only faintly visible

British Trade Dollar MS64 Examples

This is an example for MS64 British Trade Dollar.
Gorgeous Coin.

MS64 British Trade Dollar Grading Example and Tips

My personal guide for grading British trade dollar
1. Look at overall luster.
2. Look at the rim for any damage.
3. Details of the observe can be seen at the following high points.

• The hand: can all fingers seen
• The foot: can all toes seen
• The breast area... (sorry but high grade coin should buldge outward.)
• Details of the helmet.
• Details of the mintmark "B" at the prong

4.The Britannia surroundings has lots of empty space - should free from scratches or marks.

5. The reverse is generally no high points and less signs of worn seen here compared to the observe.

Ini pandangan peribadi saya tentang grading untuk British Trade Dollar:

1. Meneliti luster koin keseluruhan.

2. Meneliti tepi koin untuk sebarang tanda langgar / jatuh.

3. Bahagian depan koin boleh diteliti dari high-points berikut

• Tangan harus nampak semua jari
• Kaki harus nampak semua jari
• Bahagian dada... (maaf, namun koin yang tinggi great, dada harus tonjol keluar)
• Bahagian helmet tidak haus.
• Keterangan mintmark "B" di prong.

4.  Di sekeliling Britannia terdapat banyak ruang kosong - Sepatutnya tiada scratch atau mark di sini.

5. Bahagian belakang koin secara umumnya lebih rata dan jarang haus dengan mudah berbanding depan koin.