Trade coins are coins

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by a government, but not necessarily legal tender within the territory of the issuing country. These

quasi bullion coin Quasi (phonetics 'kwa - zee') is an American indie rock band formed in Portland, Oregon in 1993 by former spouses Sam Coomes (vocals, guitar, rocksichord, various keyboards, bass) and Janet Weiss (vocals and drums). Joanna Bolme performed an ...

s (in rarer cases small change) were thus actually export goods - that is,

bullion Bullion is non-ferrous metal that has been refined to a high standard of elemental purity. The term is ordinarily applied to bulk metal used in the production of coins and especially to precious metals such as gold and silver. It comes from t ...

in the form of coins, used to bulk buy important goods from other countries, where they could be bought at a favourable price, compared to the purchasing power of the same amount of bullion within the trade coins' country of origin. A distinction must be drawn between full value bullion trade coins, that were used in ordinary peacetime trade on the one hand, and on the other hand debased coins, that were usually made with the intention to deceive. Such debased "trade coins" were occasionally minted during times of war, e.g. the Prussian

ephraimiten An Ephraimite (German Ephraimit, plural Ephraimiten) was a debased coin part of whose silver content was replaced with copper. Ephraimites, as they came to be called, were issued under the authority of Frederick the Great of Prussia in the Duchy ...

, silver-clad copper coins minted during the Seven Years' War. If these were ever accepted or approved as legal tender, they would be valued far below the regular coins, their value being calculated according to a specified formula. The conversion rates were even then usually significantly below the intrinsic value of the coins, to cover costs of melting and recoinage etc. Since the 1920s there have been hardly any true trade coins, though some are still traded by coin collectors with a premium. Their role has now been taken over by (paper or electronic) United States dollars as a world currency.

Examples

One of the most famous trade coins of the 18th century is the Austrian

Maria Theresa thaler The Maria Theresa thaler (MTT) is a silver bullion coin and a type of Conventionsthaler that has been used in world trade continuously since it was first minted in 1741. It is named after Maria Theresa who ruled Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia fr ...

. Although dated 1780, it has been minted continuously in Austria well into the 21st century for sale to collectors. The Maria Theresa thaler was previously exported in large quantities to East Africa and the Middle East. It was so highly regarded in Africa that its purchasing power for goods and raw materials was higher there than in Austria. In preparation for the slow transition to the gold standard in England between 1717 and 1816, in trade with the Prussians England preferred 5 and 10 thaler gold pieces (

Friedrich d'or The Friedrich d'or was a Prussian gold coin (pistole) nominally worth 5 silver Prussian thalers. It was subsequently copied by other North German states under their own rulers' names (''August-, Friedrich-August-, Christian d'or'') and valued at 4. ...

) in exchange for quality goods. The Friedrich d'or thus became a trade coin, while it was also current in Prussia itself (although with a decreasing exchange rate against the silver Reichstaler, see

bimetallism Bimetallism, also known as the bimetallic standard, is a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent to certain quantities of two metals, typically gold and silver, creating a fixed rate of exchange betwee ...

). The Hungarian and Dutch gold

ducat The ducat () coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages from the 13th to 19th centuries. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wi ...

s, minted for centuries with a stable fineness, were esteemed trade coins. Other trade coins were the so-called silver trade dollars used by Mexico and the USA to buy South American or Chinese goods relatively cheaply. These countries mostly had a currency based on the silver standard or even a paper currency, and domestically set the value of silver too high even though the world market price of silver had long been lower.

Bibliography

* Heinz Fengler u. Autoren: ''Lexikon Numismatik''. transpress Verlag für Verkehrswesen, Berlin 1988,

External links

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Trade Coins
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