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trade dollar definitions

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Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1873 a United States silver dollar weighing 420 grains .900 fine issued 1873-85 for use in east Asian trade

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Trade Trade, n. [Formerly, a path, OE. tred a footmark. See Tread, n. & v.] 1. A track; a trail; a way; a path; also, passage; travel; resort. [Obs.] A postern with a blind wicket there was, A common trade to pass through Priam's house. --Surrey. Hath tracted forth some salvage beastes trade. --Spenser. Or, I'll be buried in the king's highway, Some way of common trade, where subjects' feet May hourly trample on their sovereign's head. --Shak. 2. Course; custom; practice; occupation; employment. [Obs.] ``The right trade of religion.'' --Udall. There those five sisters had continual trade. --Spenser. Long did I love this lady, Long was my travel, long my trade to win her. --Massinger. Thy sin's not accidental but a trade. --Shak. 3. Business of any kind; matter of mutual consideration; affair; dealing. [Obs.] Have you any further trade with us? --Shak. 4. Specifically: The act or business of exchanging commodities by barter, or by buying and selling for money; commerce; traffic; barter. Note: Trade comprehends every species of exchange or dealing, either in the produce of land, in manufactures, in bills, or in money; but it is chiefly used to denote the barter or purchase and sale of goods, wares, and merchandise, either by wholesale or retail. Trade is either foreign or domestic. Foreign trade consists in the exportation and importation of goods, or the exchange of the commodities of different countries. Domestic, or home, trade is the exchange, or buying and selling, of goods within a country. Trade is also by the wholesale, that is, by the package or in large quantities, generally to be sold again, or it is by retail, or in small parcels. The carrying trade is the business of transporting commodities from one country to another, or between places in the same country, by land or water. 5. The business which a person has learned, and which he engages in, for procuring subsistence, or for profit; occupation; especially, mechanical employment as distinguished from the liberal arts, the learned professions, and agriculture; as, we speak of the trade of a smith, of a carpenter, or mason, but not now of the trade of a farmer, or a lawyer, or a physician. Accursed usury was all his trade. --Spenser. The homely, slighted, shepherd's trade. --Milton. I will instruct thee in my trade. --Shak. 6. Instruments of any occupation. [Obs.] The house and household goods, his trade of war. --Dryden. 7. A company of men engaged in the same occupation; thus, booksellers and publishers speak of the customs of the trade, and are collectively designated as the trade. 8. pl. The trade winds. 9. Refuse or rubbish from a mine. [Prov. Eng.] Syn: Profession; occupation; office; calling; avocation; employment; commerce; dealing; traffic. Board of trade. See under Board. Trade dollar. See under Dollar. Trade price, the price at which goods are sold to members of the same trade, or by wholesale dealers to retailers. Trade sale, an auction by and for the trade, especially that of the booksellers. Trade wind, a wind in the torrid zone, and often a little beyond at, which blows from the same quarter throughout the year, except when affected by local causes; -- so called because of its usefulness to navigators, and hence to trade. Note: The general direction of the trade winds is from N. E. to S. W. on the north side of the equator, and from S. E. to N. W. on the south side of the equator. They are produced by the joint effect of the rotation of the earth and the movement of the air from the polar toward the equatorial regions, to supply the vacancy caused by heating, rarefaction, and consequent ascent of the air in the latter regions. The trade winds are principally limited to two belts in the tropical regions, one on each side of the equator, and separated by a belt which is characterized by calms or variable weather.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Dollar Dol"lar, n. [D. daalder, LG. dahler, G. thaler, an abbreviation of Joachimsthaler, i. e., a piece of money first coined, about the year 1518, in the valley (G. thal) of St. Joachim, in Bohemia. See Dale.] 1. (a) A silver coin of the United States containing 371.25 grains of silver and 41.25 grains of alloy, that is, having a total weight of 412.5 grains. (b) A gold coin of the United States containing 23.22 grains of gold and 2.58 grains of alloy, that is, having a total weight of 25.8 grains, nine-tenths fine. It is no longer coined. Note: Previous to 1837 the silver dollar had a larger amount of alloy, but only the same amount of silver as now, the total weight being 416 grains. The gold dollar as a distinct coin was first made in 1849. The eagles, half eagles, and quarter eagles coined before 1834 contained 24.75 grains of gold and 2.25 grains of alloy for each dollar. 2. A coin of the same general weight and value, though differing slightly in different countries, current in Mexico, Canada, parts of South America, also in Spain, and several other European countries. 3. The value of a dollar; the unit commonly employed in the United States in reckoning money values. Chop dollar. See under 9th Chop. Dollar fish (Zo["o]l.), a fish of the United States coast (Stromateus triacanthus), having a flat, roundish form and a bright silvery luster; -- called also butterfish, and Lafayette. See Butterfish. Trade dollar, a silver coin formerly made at the United States mint, intended for export, and not legal tender at home. It contained 378 grains of silver and 42 grains of alloy.