The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1878-08-31
The Trade DoIInr.

The Trade Dollar.
ED1roR CARBON ADVOCATE: Will you be
kind enough to give us your views on the
subject of the trade dollar?
Our postmaster insists upon paying money
orders in trade dollars simply because he takes
them fer dollar; but if we want to denosit
them in the First National Bank of Lehigh-
ton Of which he (the p. n.y. is a director-we
are only allowed ninety two cents for them.
So long as the banks received them for
dollar we did not complain, but We cannot
submit TO a discount of s cents between the
towns Of Weissport and Lehighton.
We have no fault to find with the Banks,
for as we understand the matter, they can
refuse to take them except at this valuation.
The trade dollar is not a legal tender, nor is
it authorized as q circulating medium by
our governmental is in merchahtable ar
ticle, and if they can't realize more than 90
or % cents for it--that is all it is worth.
Neither the banks or postmasters have any
right to insist upon a customer taking
trade dollar at any price.
Our Postmaster who has n store In con-
nection with the office might with the same
propriety insist upon paying money orders
in butter md eggs, because he trades for
these articles at q fixed vuluatiun--not by
the government however, but by himself.
Now, we think it is well for him to under
stand this, before he makes up his mind to
pay us in i0hdteUCr he may hare the most of,
and insist upon our taking that, whatever it
be, trade dollars or dry goods, instead of
giving us what we have right to demand,
U. S. funds. If he takes trade dollars in his
business and his customers take them of him,
he has perfect right to do so, but he don't
know that he has no right to insist upon it
and that this so called trade dollar is not
a legal tender. We think it time some one
had enlightened him upon the subject.
By giving this your attention, you will
confer a favor, we think, upon the public
generally, who do not appear to have prop
er understanding of what trade dollar is.
Yours, ETC., L. L. WILLS, Treas,
L. V. E. W. Co., Weissport Pa.
Aug. 30. 1873.
The following article which we clip from
the Philadelphia Times will fully elucidate
to the Weissport p. NJ. what the value
and nature of the trade dollar is, and We
therefore commend il to his attention.
There is surprising amount of Ignorance
among those who should be well informed
in regard to the character of the trade dol
lar, and some of the newspapers complain
because the Treasury Department will not
redeem this coin at par. 1t ought to be
known that the trade dollar is not money
and never was intended to be. 1t was not
designed as a circulating medium, but only
as a convenient form in which to export
bullion, and it was not issued by the gov
ernment, as other coins are, but simply
stamped for the owners of the bullion, pre-
cisely as silver bars are stamped, each piece
being marked with its exact weight and
fneness. The report of the Director of the
Mint, which led to the authorization Of the,
trade dollar, after reciting the requirements
of trade with China and Japan, recommends
new coin or dick, which shall be slight
ly more valuable than the Mexican dollar,
to be made only on the requpst of the owner
OF the bullion and to be paid for by him."
and adds:
1t is not proposed to make the new coin
or disk a legal tender in payment of debt,
but simply a stamped ingot, with its weight
and fineness Indicated. Its manufacture
can therefore in no Wise give rise TO any
complication with our monetary system and
neither in theory or principle differ in any
respect from the manufacture Of impaired
or refined bars now authorized by law, eX-
cept in being ofuniform weight and fneness.
Upon recommendation the trade dollar
was authorized in the coinage act of 1873
By what was plainly piece of carelessness
| or inOdvertancc, it was included in the list
| of subsidiary coins named in the same act es
| legal tender in sums not exceeding five dol
lars, and the error was corrected by subse.
| quent legislation, and so few of the trade
dollars had circulated in the United States
prior to 1876 that they can hardly be said
| to have entered at any time into the autho-
rised currency, AS silver deprecated in
value, the expectation of these stamped disks
became Improbable, and the owners of bull
| lion took advantage of the temporary and
fictitious demand for silver dollar, which
they had succeeded in creating, and of
| the resemblance of these coins to real
dollars, to put large number of them into
| circulation, exchanging them at the rate Of
one hundred cents, though they were worth
| little more than ninety, OF course it was
not possible TO carry this on very far. 1t twas
soon found that trade dollars were not
dollars at ALL but only pieces of silver
which were worth no more than the
market value of the bullion, and people
refused to receive them, except as "chapge"
in small amounts. As consequenA3 a
| great many people have stocks of silver
left on their hands, and they raise howl
| because the government will not buy it from
them for more than il is worth. The gov
ernment has no more TO do with this than
! it has with the stocks of wheat or oil or
wood, that have equally deprecated in price.
The trade dollars are simply merchandise,
and the only thing to do with a stock of
them is to sell it for what it will bring or
| hold il for n rise