Hi,
hope there are some experts on British Trade Dollars out there. Bought this one in Pakistan 20 years ago. For me it looks genuine but as i know there are so many fakes out there I was critical about it all the time. Here the facts:
Weight: 26,83 gr. (should be 26,95 gr.)
Diameter: 39 mm
Thickness: 2,64 mm (should be 3 mm)
Does someone know if there were some tolerance in the thickness of those coins. Maybe someone can measure his Trade dollar for comparison.
Thank you for your opinion/help
Ronald,
Your 1898 (Bombay) Trade Dollar does not raise any suspicions. Weight reflects wear, colour is fine for a .900 silver coin. It is always difficult to establish authenticity without having a coin in hands, but having said that, from your pictures and data I'd say it is genuine.
Mine is also less than 3 mm thick.
I collect coins and tokens which circulated in Africa from 18th century to 2000. I sell about 7000 illustrated world coins from http://www.avscoins.com.
Thank you Andrey, I also checked the coin with my metal detector. It shows exactly the same value as other .900 silver coins of the same size. If it is a fake it would be a very good one made of the same alloy of silver. Still the thickness makes me wonder...