1874 Trade Dollar - Brunk C-901, J.L. Cooper

Coin Details

Auction Record

$114 VF Details 09-16-2020 Heritage Auctions

Description

This 1874 Trade Dollar bears a merchant counterstamp attributed to J.L. Cooper, cataloged as Brunk C-901. Counterstamps were applied to circulating coins by merchants, silversmiths, and tradesmen as a form of portable advertising — the business card of early America. The J.L. Cooper stamp identifies a business operating in Cooper, one of many merchants who used coin counterstamping to advertise their trade. The host coin is a 1874 dollar from the Trade Dollars 1873-1885 series. The host coin's original mintage was 3.0 million, though counterstamped examples represent only a tiny fraction of survivors. Struck in silver. Cataloged as PCGS #826121. Counterstamped coins documented in Gregory G. Brunk's "American and Canadian Countermarked Coins" sit at the intersection of numismatics and Americana — each piece is a primary-source historical document of early American commerce. The counterstamp adds a unique layer of provenance that distinguishes this coin from all other examples of its type.