$3 Gold Coin
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$3 Gold Coin Reverse
$3 Gold Coin Obverse
The $3 Gold Coin also called the three-dollar piece is one of the most unusual gold coins minted in the United States. It has quite a low issue period for a gold coin of only 35 years, from 1854 to 1889, and low mintage almost for all years of production, making this coin a rare specimen.
The coin specifications are as follows:
| Gold composition: | 0.900 |
| Gold content: | 0.1452 oz |
| Weight: | 5.0150 g |
| Diameter: | 20.5 mm |
The $3 gold coin was designed by James B. Longacre and the target he tried to achieve was to make some unique design that would not be confused with other two gold coins that were circulating at the time and were similar in their size to a new one, namely the $2.5 Liberty Head Quarter Eagle and $5 Liberty Head Half Eagle. As a result, Miss Liberty got its Indian Headdress, and consequently was named the "Indian Princess". As a matter of fact, Longacre had used a similar Indian Headdress design a little later for the one dollar gold coin.
The three-dollar piece was accepted by the Act of February 21, 1853. The reasons for issuing this strange denomination are not exactly known or agreed upon. There're two theories, and by one, it was simple caused by the excess of gold as it happened at the time of the California Gold Rush, and quite likely it made some effect on the Congress to make this decision. But by another theory, the $3 gold coin was issued as a marketing attempt of making people to buy more postal stamps. A first class postal stamp of that time was 3 cents and they were sold in sheets of 100, so $3 was exactly enough money to buy one sheet. Whether it had made a big impact on how the stamps started to sell is not exactly clear, but by some sources, the public didn't accept the new denomination very well.
The coin was minted in four locations: in Philadelphia, Dahlonega, New Orleans, and San Francisco. With mintage varying from over 138,618 in 1854 to 2 in 1870 (San Francisco mint), of which only one is located and valued at $4,000,000 in 2007. With such a low mintage, every single $3 gold coin is considered as a rare specimen, but on the other hand, there were over half a million pieces minted in total for over 35 years and you can almost always find some "Indian Princess" coins available for sale.
You can see some current listings for $3 gold coins below:
