1 Dollar - T$1 Commercial Dollar

Reverse

Text outside and inside a Wreath.

Script: Latin

Lettering:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
COMMERCIAL
DOLLAR
420 GRS
900 FINE
GOD OUR TRUST

Edge

Plain

Comment

This Commercial pattern issue, was struck in copper (and silver) in plain and reeded edge varieties and was the forerunner of the Trade Dollar that would make its official debut in commerce two years later, in 1873. USPatterns.com notes that the former Bass example in silver, reeded edge (Judd-1154), weighed 410 grains--close to the regular standard for silver dollars, despite the reverse inscription.

The use of the revised motto GOD OUR TRUST is interesting, as this original version had been rejected years before, and "no information has been learned to the effect that the usual motto, IN GOD WE TRUST, needed modification," according to Judd. Perhaps the simplest explanation is correct, that for the designer a ribbon center with two sides dictated a three- rather than four-word version.

Judd estimates that the plain edge versions in silver and copper are R.8, while the reeded edge versions are High R.7. Like so many of these incredibly elusive patterns, however, making an accurate census or estimate of their true rarity is simply impossible. Many of the early auction citations lack photographs and/or are simply misattributed--when attributed at all--and various factors conspire to mask the true picture of a given issue's rarity. The certified populations are but one clue to those questions, but they are nonetheless helpful when taken with the usual caveats to the emptor (and vendor).

Interesting fact