2020-09-02 Wed

Trade Dollar was silver coins minted for trade purposes in Oriental countries. Their weight and appearance are similar to the Spanish Dollar which was the standard trade currency for Far East countries. In order to remove the reliance of a British Colony upon the various foreign coins then in circulation, the British introduced trade Dollar to run its rule smoothly. George William De Saulles designed the British trade Dollar which was minted from 1895 for Hong Kong and the Straits Settlements. In 1903, the Straits dollar was introduced to the Straits Settlements. In 1935, the Hong Kong coin was introduced. Those coins had mint mark ‘B’ was produced at the Bombay Mint; others, marked ‘C’, were struck in Calcutta. Those with no mint mark were produced in London. The ‘C’ mintmark can be found in the ground between the left foot of Britannia and the base of the shield, while the ‘B’ mint mark is located in the center prong of the trident. It is interesting to note that the 1921-B dollar was struck but never released for circulation but 1934-B and 1935-B coins were released in limited numbers only. Image Courtesy: Wikipedia.com