Indian Princess Gold Dollar

The Indian Princess Gold Dollar coin is the second and last major type of gold dollar coin ever struck by the United States.

Specifications

 * Designer: James Barton Longacre
 * Obverse Design:
 * Reverse Design:
 * Edge: Reeded
 * Weight: ±1.7 grams
 * Diameter: ±14.3 millimeters
 * Composition: Gold (90%), Silver and Copper (10%)
 * Dates Minted: 1854-1889

Background
The Indian Head gold dollar was introduced in late 1854, after it became evident that the previous gold dollar coin (the Liberty Head type) was being lost a lot due to its small size AND often suffering the abuse of being sliced in two, gold content being scraped out of the core, then soldered back together again! So a new type of gold dollar was created, one that was larger in diameter, but thinner than the Liberty Head gold dollar, thus effectively taking care of both aforementioned problems. This new gold dollar was the Indian Head gold dollar.

Types
Though the Indian Head gold dollar is a type unto itself, it is broken down into two major sub-types: the Type 2 and the Type 3.

There was no Type 1 Indian Head gold dollar– the Type 1 was the previous Liberty Head dollar of 1849-54. The first of the Indian Head gold dollars was the Type 2. It featured a small, thin, left-facing bust of an Indian princess wearing a headdress of plume-like feathers. The bust is surrounded by stars. On the reverse is, again, the wreath within which reads, “One Dollar” with the date below it.

Initially, there was a pretty large mintage for the Type 2 Indian Head gold dollar. Over 902,000 were struck in 1854, with over 758,000 struck in 1855– at least at the Philadelphia mint. In 1854, Type 2 Indian Head gold dollars were struck only in Philadelphia. In 1855, they were struck at the Philadelphia mint, but there were also smaller mintages at the Dahlonega mint in Georgia, the Charolotte mint and the New Orleans mint. In 1856, the only mint to strike Type 2 Indian Head gold dollars was the San Francisco mint, where 24,600 were produced.

The Type 2 Indian Head gold dollar only lasted from the last part of 1854 through the first part of 1856 before being replaced by the Type 3 Indian Head gold dollar. The brief life span of the Type 2 Indian Head gold dollar may account for its higher market values today, compared to much smaller mintage dates in the Type 3 Indian Head gold dollar series.

Mint officials, wishing to ratchet up the artistic merit of the Indian Head gold dollar, created the Type 3 gold dollar with a larger, more bold portrait of the Indian princess. Besides the larger, more modified bust, the rest of the coin design remained essentially the same. The Type 3 Indian Head gold dollar lasted far longer than the Type 2. The Type 3 gold dollar was struck from 1856 through 1889. Still, most of the mintages are small– in only two of those years did mintage figures go a bit above the 1 million mark. Most date/mintmarks have mintages of only a few thousand!

In the Type 3 phase, gold dollars were struck at the Charlotte mint only from 1857 to 1859. Type 3 Dahlonega gold dollars were struck from 1856 to 1861 before being discontinued there. The New Orleans mint never struck any Type 3 gold dollars. Type 3 gold dollars were struck at the San Francisco mint from 1857 to 1860, then one more time in 1870. All other Type 3 gold dollars were struck at the Philadelphia mint.

Collecting
It may not be accurate to say that most of the low-priced coins in the Indian Head gold dollar series are “common dates.” In actuality, many of the low-priced pieces are low-mintage dates! In any event, the “common” or at least “un-sought-after” dates in this series, (and they’re pretty much all Type 3 gold dollars) retail $130-$160 in Fine, $200-$215 in Extra Fine.

The rare dates in the Indian Head gold dollar series, Type 2 and Type 3, include the following: the 1851-D retails $3,000 in Fine; the 1857 retails $2,950 in Fine; the 1860-D retails $2,000 in Fine; the 1875 retails $1,600 in Fine. The 1861-D, with an unrecorded mintage, retails $4,600 in Fine.

Here’s what’s really interesting – the 1854 Type 2 gold dollar has a mintage of 902,736 and retails $210 in Fine. By comparison, the Type 3 1880 gold dollar has a PALTRY mintage of 1,636 yet retails only $150 in Fine! This should be a clue that the 1880 gold dollar, and other similar dates in the Type 3 series with low mintages but common-date prices, are super bargains!

Grading
Like the Liberty Head gold dollar, many of the Indian Head gold dollars come down to us today with solder marks, holes, plugged holes, or loops. Clearly, many of these coins were popular as jewelry! Such pieces should be accordingly discounted.

When the Indian Head gold dollar was discontinued in 1889, it ended the era of the gold dollar in United States coinage. Yes, some refer to our new Sacagawea dollar as a “gold dollar,” but it’s gold in color only. The Indian Head dollar was our nation’s last precious-metal gold dollar coin.

Mints

 * Philadelphia Mint (No mintmark)
 * San Francisco Mint (S mintmark)
 * New Orleans Mint (O mintmark)
 * Dahlonega Mint (D mintmark)