The three-dollar piece was a gold coin produced by the United States Bureau of the Mint from 1854 to 1889. Authorized by the Act of February 21, 1853, the coin was designed by Mint Chief Engraver James B. Longacre. The obverse bears a representation of Lady Liberty wearing a headdress of a Native American princess and the reverse a wreath of corn, wheat, cotton, and tobacco.
In 1851, Congress had authorized a silver three-cent piece so that postage stamps of that value could be purchased without using the widely disliked copper cents. Two years later, a bill was passed which authorized a three-dollar coin. By some accounts, the three-dollar coin was introduced to make it easier to buy a full sheet of 100 three-cent stamps in a single transaction. Longacre, in designing the piece, sought to make it as different as possible from the quarter eagle or $2.50 piece, striking it on a thinner planchet and using a distinctive design.
Although over 100,000 were struck in the first year, the coin saw little use. It circulated somewhat on the West Coast, where gold and silver were used to the exclusion of paper money, but what little place it had in commerce in the East was lost in the economic disruption of the Civil War, and was never regained. The piece was last struck in 1889, and Congress ended the series the following year. Although many dates were struck in small numbers, the rarest was produced at the San Francisco Mint in 1870 (1870-S); only one is known with certainty to exist which was sold by Heritage Auctions for $5,520,000 in 2023.
Inception
In 1832, New York Congressman Campbell P. White sought a means of returning American gold coins to circulation—as gold was overvalued with respect to silver by the government, gold coins had been routinely exported since the start of the 19th century. White's solution was to have the silver dollar and gold eagle struck at full value, but to have smaller gold and silver coins, including a $3 piece, which contained less than their face value in metal. Although Congress, in passing the Coinage Act of 1834, made adjustments to the ratio between gold and silver, it did not authorize a $3 coin at that time.
The Act of March 3, 1845 authorized the first United States postage stamps and set the rate for local prepaid letters at five cents. In the years following, this rate was seen as too high and an impediment to commerce. Accordingly, Congress on March 3, 1851 authorized both a three-cent stamp and a three-cent silver coin. Kentucky Representative Richard Henry Stanton believed that the need to make change from a silver half dime with large copper cents might defeat the new scheme, writing to Mint Director Robert M. Patterson that "reduced postage [rates] depended on a three-cent coin for use in those states where copper does not circulate." According to numismatic historian Walter Breen, "the main purpose of the new 3¢ piece would be to buy postage stamps without using the unpopular, heavy, and often filthy copper cents.
By 1853, silver was overvalued with respect to gold. This was due to large discoveries of gold, especially in California, and silver was heavily exported. To correct this situation, Secretary of the Treasury Thomas Corwin advocated reducing the precious-metal content of most silver coins to prevent their export. The opposition to the bill was led by Tennessee Representative Andrew Johnson, who believed that Congress had no authority to alter the gold/silver price ratio and, if it did, it should not exercise it. Nevertheless, Congress passed the bill, which became law on February 21, 1853. That bill also authorized a three-dollar gold coin; according to numismatic writer Don Taxay, provision for it had been inserted at the behest of gold interests.
According to Breen, Congress believed the new coin "would be convenient for exchange for rolls or small bags of silver 3¢ pieces, and for buying sheets of 3¢ stamps—always bypassing use of copper cents". In 1889, then-Mint Director James P. Kimball wrote that "it is supposed that the three-dollar piece was designed to be a multiple of the three-cent piece, for the convenience of postal transactions". Numismatist Walter Hagans in his 2003 article on the three-dollar coin notes and dismisses the postal explanation, writing "the actual reason for the gold $3 coin was the abundant supply of gold discovered in California." Coin dealer and author Q. David Bowers notes that "whether or not the $3 denomination was actually necessary or worthwhile has been a matter of debate among numismatists for well over a century."
Preparation and design
Much of what is known of the design process for the three-dollar piece is from an August 21, 1858, letter from the Mint's chief engraver, James B. Longacre, the coin's designer, to the then-Mint director, James Ross Snowden. This letter is apparently in response to some criticism, and in it, Longacre discussed his views on coin design, especially regarding the three-dollar piece. He noted that he was initially perplexed as to what to put on the coin; the three-dollar piece was the first time he had been allowed to choose a design. Although he had designed the three-cent piece and other issues before Snowden's directorship, he had been told what to put on those pieces. The coin weighed 64.5 grams, and had a fineness of 900.
Longacre noted that although those in charge of coinage design had usually dictated adaptations of Roman or Greek art, for the three-dollar coin, he was minded to create something truly American:
Representations of America as a female Native American, or Indian princess, dated back to the 16th century; cartographers would place a native woman, often wearing a feathered headdress, upon their version of the North American continent. This evolved into an image of an Indian queen, then an Indian princess, and although Columbia eventually came to be the favored female embodiment of the United States, the image of the Indian princess survives in the popular view of such figures as Pocahontas and Sacagawea.
Some sources suggest that Longacre may have based the features of Liberty on those of his daughter, Sarah. This story would be more often associated with Longacre's Indian Head cent, but the features of Liberty on both coins (and also the Type I gold dollar, the double eagle, and the three-cent nickel piece) are nearly identical. To help distinguish the new coin from the quarter eagle or $2.50 piece, Longacre used a thinner planchet, or blank, to make the piece greater in diameter. He also flattened the planchet of the gold dollar to enlarge it, and gave it the same Indian princess design. The reverse originates Longacre's "agricultural wreath" of corn, tobacco, cotton, and wheat which would also appear on the gold dollar, Flying Eagle cent, and his revised reverse for the Seated Liberty dime and half dime. This blended the produce of the South and North at a time of intersectional tension. Numismatist Walter Hagans deems the wreathed reverse "as uniquely American as is the Indian maiden on the obverse."
Art historian Cornelius Vermeule stated that "the one area in which Longacre gave free rein to his imagination was in the matter of fancy headdress for his renderings of Liberty. His caps of feathers, his bonnets of freedom, and his starry diadems are a joy to behold." Nevertheless, Vermeule disliked the figure on the obverse, "the princess of the gold coins is a banknote engraver's elegant version of folk art of the 1850s. The plumes or feathers are more like the crest of the Prince of Wales than anything that saw the Western frontier, save perhaps on a music hall beauty."
At the time of the authorization of the three-dollar piece, the Whig administration of Millard Fillmore was still in office, but two weeks later, Fillmore was succeeded by Democrat Franklin Pierce, and Mint Director George N. Eckert yielded his place to Thomas M. Pettit. Longacre submitted two designs to Pettit, and before the latter died on May 31, 1853, he selected one of the two; relief models quickly followed the approval. Longacre's models, both for the obverse and reverse, did not have lettering on them, as the legends and numbers were to be punched once a reduction was made. This allowed them to be used multiple times for different denominations. As Longacre was busy with the reduced-weight silver coins ordered by Congress in the same act that had authorized the three-dollar piece, work on dies did not begin until 1854.
Production The first three-dollar pieces were 15 proof coins, delivered to the Secretary of the Treasury, James Guthrie, by Mint Director Snowden on April 28, 1854, most likely for distribution to legislators. The Philadelphia Mint then began the largest production of three-dollar pieces the denomination would ever see. Chief Coiner Franklin Peale delivered 23,140 pieces on May 8 and 29,181 pieces four days later. However, after June 8, there was only one further delivery by Peale, on November 10, when the last 22,740 of the mintage of 138,618 were delivered. In addition to the strikings at Philadelphia, there was branch mint production, with 24,000 pieces struck at the New Orleans Mint (1854-O) and 1,120 at Dahlonega (1854-D). A pair of dies was sent from Philadelphia to the Charlotte Mint on June 1, but they were not used. A pair was sent to Dahlonega the same day, arriving on June 10, with gauges and other necessary equipment following on July 15. The coinage of the 1854-D took place in August; the piece is today a rarity as few were put aside and it was not until decades later that mintmarked coins were saved as distinct varieties. Dies were sent to New Orleans in 1855, 1856, 1859, and 1861, only to remain unused; no further strikings took place at any of the three southern branch mints.
Beginning in 1855, the letters of the word "Dollars" were enlarged, following complaints from the public. The same year, coinage began at the San Francisco Mint, where 6,600 were struck as opposed to 50,555 at Philadelphia. Mintages at Philadelphia declined for the remainder of the decade, to 7,036 by 1860; pieces were also struck at San Francisco in 1856, 1857, and 1860. In 1859, early numismatic writer Montroville W. Dickeson wrote of the three-dollar piece, "it is very unpopular, being frequently mistaken for a quarter eagle, and often counted as a five-dollar piece. It is exceedingly annoying to that portion of the human family whose vision is dependent on artificial aid, and we think its retirement would meet with public approbation." Perhaps a dozen contemporary numismatists collected three-dollar pieces; those who were serious ordered proof coins from the Mint. Coins in this condition became easier to obtain from Philadelphia as officials responded to the rise in interest in coin collecting which followed the introduction of the Flying Eagle cent in 1857.