COSTA MESA, CA.- The Book of Ecclesiastes famously said “there is nothing new under the sun.” The French have a famous axiom that translates to “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

In 1885, a powerful political appointee named A. Loudon Snowden retired, ending a decades-long career at the United States Mint in Philadelphia that saw him relentlessly use his position for personal gain. His career began when his uncle — the former speaker of the Pennsylvania State House and Treasurer of Pennsylvania — gave him a job at age 22, fresh out of college. Over the decades that followed, Snowden oversaw the off-the-books production of thousands of delicacies for coin collectors, enriching himself and others in the process.

On the way out the door, he oversaw the production of exactly five “Trade Dollars” dated 1885. Documents are silent on many of the details, but it seems likely Snowden purchased all five from the Mint cashier for himself. Unknown to numismatists until 1911, the coins became famous rarities almost instantly.

On November 17, for the first time in years, an example will change hands at public auction, to be conducted by Stack’s Bowers Galleries of Costa Mesa, California. It is anticipated to bring over $2 Million.

A coinage type conceived to aid American trade interests in the Far East, Trade Dollars were struck for circulation between 1873 and 1878. Changes in the silver market and U.S. policies forced their demonetization in 1876 (restored in 1965), and beginning in 1879 specimens were made only for collectors. In 1883, the last year the coins were widely offered, 979 coins were struck. In 1884, that number decreased to 10, and the series was considered retired. The dies (the steel tools used to press designs into coins) were destroyed.

At some point between January 2, 1885, when the old dies were destroyed, and Snowden’s retirement as Superintendent of the Philadelphia Mint that June, new dies were prepared and exactly five 1885 Trade Dollars were struck at the United States Mint in Philadelphia. All five are thought to have been acquired by Snowden before the decision was made — perhaps by Snowden himself — to strike no more and offer none to collectors. Snowden died in 1912. The first 1885 Trade Dollar was sold at auction in 1913. It brought $1,140.

Snowden was not the only Philadelphia Mint official at the time whose career started in nepotism and ended after years of self-dealing and corruption. Other contemporary Philadelphia Mint officials — including Mint Director Henry Linderman, whose uncle was a U.S. Senator — are known to have trafficked in coins they had struck clandestinely. In 2025, the numismatic world was shocked by the appearance of another coin with a provenance to A. Loudon Snowden, a rare 1804-dated silver dollar struck during Snowden’s term in office. That coin was sold by Stack’s Bowers Galleries for a record $6 Million in December 2025.