One Dollar Gold Coin

The One Dollar Gold Coin or the Gold Dollar was minted from 1849 to 1889 and was the smallest gold coin in the US issued for circulation. There were three different types of the coin, but the coin specification almost did not change and is as follows:

Liberty Head Reverse



Liberty Head Obverse

The One Dollar gold coin was not a planned issue initially as there was already a system of gold coins revolving around the Gold Eagle ($10) and its fractions ($2.5, $5, $20). But as the surplus of gold after two gold rushes was growing and due to the fact that some enterprising individuals had already started minting one dollar gold coins, the government of course just couldn't sit and look at this and had to step in with its own initiative. Therefore, after several hold-ups in the Congress that lasted a bit over a decade, in 1849 the US Mint issued the first one dollar gold. The Gold Dollar was minted for the next 50 years until 1889 and as mentioned before there were three different types of the coin: the Liberty Head, Small Indian Head, and Large Indian Head; all three types were designed by James B. Longacre. You can read more about these types after the current listings below.

You can see current listings for One Dollar Gold Coins here:

Type Descriptions of One Dollar Gold Coin

Small Indian Head Reverse



Small Indian Head Obverse



Large Indian Head Reverse



Large Indian Head Obverse

Liberty Head (1849 – 1854)
The first type of the One Dollar gold coin was the Liberty Head or the Type 1. The obverse of the coin depicts Liberty's head facing left in a circle of thirteen stars and wearing a coronet. The reverse of the coin depicts the date and value of the coin encircled in a wreath and the inscription "United States of America". The Liberty Head gold dollar coins were mainly minted at Philadelphia and Dahlonega, but there were also New Orleans, San Francisco, and Charlotte strikes.

Despite of the demand for small gold coinage, the one dollar gold coin was not very popular with the public, and the problem was its very small size. With the size of only 13 mm, one dollar gold coin is the smallest ever gold coin issued for circulation in the United States. And hence, it was very easy to lose, and that's what happened a lot. As the result of complains, the US Mint started to experiment with new designs, but the weight had to stay the same because of the gold value. There was an idea of having a hole in the centre of the coin, but then it was changed to having the coin larger, but thinner.

Small Indian Head (1854 – 1856)
The second type of the one dollar gold coin was the Small Indian Head or the Type 2. Longacre used a similar design as he used in the same year for the Three Dollar gold coin and it depicted Miss Liberty wearing an Indian headdress. This design is quite often called "Indian Princess" even though according to historians it's more likely that Longacre used one of the Roman marble figures. The one dollar gold coin was now larger but there was another problem – the relief of the coin had too many high points and as the reason, the coin was very hard to fully struck and was not sturdy enough for circulation. There was a need for another change.

Large Indian Head (1856 – 1889)
The last design of the one dollar gold coin was the Large Indian Head or the Type 3. The design was changed but very similar to the previous Small Indian Head – the head was now larger now and the coin flatter. The headdress was changed and there were some smaller changes to the face details. The coin was mostly minted in Philadelphia, and some proofs were minted for this type as well. The mintage for the one dollar gold coin was discontinued in 1889, but it was circulating in the country until the use of gold coinage was stopped in 1933.