Exquisitely smooth and boldly reflective fields are awash in swaths of medium to dark champagne patina that reveal a beautiful pastel iridescence at a tilt. On the reverse the coloration is less extensive and more defined, with distinct areas of electric blue and dusky rose gold being dominant. The frosted devices stand out from the mirrored fields in pleasingly subtle contrast on both sides, with the silver glow of the underlying brilliance most apparent at center. The strike is exemplary, exhibiting full definition from the central devices to the denticles with no areas of weakness visible, even under magnification. From a proof-only issue of only 979 pieces. For twenty-five years collectors assumed that this, the 1883 issue, was the final year of Trade Dollar production, but in 1908, under rather mysterious circumstances, ten 1884 and five 1885 Proof Trade Dollars made their appearance. It appears that noted 19th Century coin dealer William Idler and his good friend Mint Superintendent A. Loudon Snowden were able to strike a deal transferring the previously unknown coins from the Mints possession to the dealer, who kept their existence secret for the rest of his life. After Idlers death in 1901 his coins were passed on to his son-in law John W. Hazeltine who, through an agent, sold the first of the unknown Trade Dollars in 1907, and then publicly revealed the existence of the coins in an address he made at the 1908 ANA convention in Philadelphia.,,PCGS# 7063. NGC ID: 27YV.,,
