Indian Princess Three Dollar Gold Piece

Careful grading of the Indian Princess Three Dollar Gold Piece is critical because there's quite a difference in value between mint state examples and those showing wear.

Specifications

 * Designer: James Barton Longacre
 * Obverse Design: Liberty is wearing a feathered headdress of equal-sized plumes with a band bearing LIBERTY.
 * Reverse Design: Wreath of tobacco, wheat, corn and cotton with plant.
 * Edge: Reeded
 * Weight: 5.02 grams
 * Diameter: ±20.5 millimeters
 * Composition:  Gold (90%), Other (10%)
 * Dates Minted: 1854-1889

Background
There was a proposal for a U.S. three-dollar gold coin way back in 1832, but Mint Director Samuel Moore squelched that idea quickly. There was simply no need for it at the time. Actually, there was probably never really a need for a three-dollar gold coin, but that was especially true in 1832. Remember, there were few gold coins being struck, as there was little gold available to make gold coins! That would all change after 1848, when gold was discovered in the California foothills. This led to the Gold Rush years where gold poured out of California, thus leading to a demand for higher productivity of gold coins AND for more gold coin denominations.

The official reason behind the creation of the Three-Dollar Gold Piece is in line with the reason the U.S. Mint created a Three-Cent coin: postage. Now, the Three-Cent coin idea at least made sense in 1851: the cost of a first-class postage stamp had been reduced from five-cents to three-cents, so why not create a single coin with which the average citizen could buy a stamp? So what does this have to do with the creation of a Three-Dollar coin? Well, the idea was, with a Three-Dollar gold coin, one could buy 100 of the new postage stamps! Never mind that the cost of 100 stamps was more than most American citizens made for full day’s work!

The truth probably has more to do with the gold lobbyists desire for another U.S. gold coin denomination to raise the value of gold even more. So in 1852, they lobbied hard for a three-dollar gold coin. It worked: Congress approved the idea for this new coin denomination in February of 1853.

In 1889, the U.S. Mint finally ceased its production of the Three-Dollar Gold Piece, though it would not be until 1890 that Congress would pass legislation abolishing production of this denomination altogether. In the end, the Indian Princess Three-Dollar Gold Piece last probably much longer than it should have, but that is the advantage of today’s collector, as there are many dates to choose from – granted though, most of these dates are quite scarce and costly. The Indian Princess Three-Dollar Gold Piece will go down in history as the one and ONLY three-dollar gold coin ever struck by the U.S. Mint.

History
Mint Director James Snowden had chief engraver James B. Longacre create a design for the new three-dollar gold coin. What Longacre came up with, was an “Indian Princess” design, though the “Indian” princess with plume-like headdress on the obverse actually has Caucasion features. Incidentally, the Indian princess bust on the Three-Dollar Gold Piece is similar to that of the Indian Head cent of seven years later. That makes sense, because Longacre would go on to design THAT U.S. coin classic as well!

Longacre is also responsible for designing U.S. coins where he takes the unusual step of putting the date on the REVERSE instead of the obverse, as is usually standard. The new Three-Dollar Gold Piece was one such U.S. coin type where the date is on the reverse– it appears within the wreath below the words “3 Dollars”.

Regular coinage of the new Indian Princess Three-Dollar Gold Piece began in April of 1854, with 138,618 pieces struck that year. That seems like a small mintage, and it actually is, but for this series, it was by far the highest mintage of any year. Interestingly, there is an 1854-D Three-Dollar Gold Piece, but don’t mistake that for being a Denver mint coin– the Denver mint was still years away from being established. That “D” stands for the mint at Dahlonega, Georgia. This would be the ONLY three-dollar gold piece struck at that mint, and for that reason, combined with its tiny output of 1,120 pieces, this piece is quite rare and expensive today. Expect to pay $8,300 for an average-grade (in this case, Very Fine) example.

There was also a New Orleans output of 1854 Three-Dollar Gold Pieces. These are also quite scarce (24,000 struck), and also the only year New Orleans struck three-dollar gold coins. These 1854-O pieces will cost you $1,000 in Very Fine.

The San Francisco mint struck Three-Dollar Gold Pieces from 1855 through 1860, though skipping the years 1858 and 1859. After 1860, the Three-Dollar Gold Piece was only produced at the Philadelphia mint.

Collecting
Besides the 1854 Three-Dollar Gold Piece, only three other dates would have “significant” mintages: 1855 with 50,555; 1874 with 41,820; 1878 with 82,324. Most other dates had mintages of just a few thousand, some even under 100! For example, in 1875 only 20 pieces were struck, and they were all Proof issues. Likewise, the 1873 date is a Proof only issue. There is also a notable rarity in the series: the 1870-S is unique, and so rare as to not even have values listed!

Though mintage figures were paltry through the 1870's, there was a slight rise in production of the Three-Dollar Gold Piece in 1887 and 1888. Interestingly, it was because of a current fad: there was a “love token” craze going on, where silver and gold coins were taken out of circulation, smoothed out on one side, and a lover’s initials placed on the smoothed out side. Some of the more well-heeled American citizenry would make use of the Three-Dollar-Gold Piece to use as a love token for their significant other.

The most affordable Three-Dollar Gold Piece you’re likely to encounter will be the 1874, valued at $800 in Very Fine. The 1854 is also a “less expensive” date at $850 in Very Fine. Of particular value might be the dates of 1879 and 1880. With mintages of about 3,000 and 1,000 respectively, they are still priced the same as higher-mintage “common” dates with retail values of $850 in Good.

Mints

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