1854 $3.00 PCGS MS-66
First Year of Issue |
 Very few mint state examples survive of any but the handful of relatively common dates of which the 1854 is one. Most three-dollar pieces are found in the grades of Very Fine or Extremely Fine, many of them damaged from use as jewelry. Quite a few were fashioned into “Love tokens.”However, any $3 gold in MS-66 is a prize, especailly for the High Grade Type collector or Three Dollar Gold specialist.From an original mintage of 138,618 coins, it is estimated that fewer than 30 survive in grades of 65 or better. As of this posting PCGS has graded only 5 in MS-66 with two in 67
Fewer than 30 coins exist in MS65 or better |
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When the Mint Act of February 21, 1853 authorized a three-dollar gold coin, Congress and Mint Director Robert Maskell Patterson were convinced that the new coin would speed purchases of three-cent stamps by the sheet and of the silver three-cent coins in roll quantities. Unfortunately, at no time during the 35-year span of this denomination did public demand justify these hopes. The coin was never popular with the general public.Chief Engraver James Barton Longacre chose an “Indian Princess” for his obverse—not a Native American profile, but actually a profile modeled after the Greco-Roman Venus Accroupie statue then in a Philadelphia museum.The three-dollar denomination quietly expired in 1889 along with the gold dollar and nickel three-cent piece. America’s coinage was certainly more prosaic without this odd denomination gold piece, but its future popularity with collectors would vastly outstrip the lukewarm public reception it enjoyed during its circulating life. |
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