The D. Brent Pogue 1857-S $3 is the finest example of the date available – words we repeat often in this offering. It is satiny deep gold with olive and deep orange-gold iridescence in the somewhat reflective fields. Lively luster cascades evenly across both sides. The strike is sharp throughout, though the date is weak as always seen; it was impressed lightly into the die from left to right with the 7 the heaviest of the numerals. The surfaces are very attractive. There are some scattered tiny marks on both sides, though the only one of note is a faint horizontal mark from the T of UNITED toward Liberty’s lips Probably no more than a half dozen truly Mint State examples of this date can be accounted for today. Of the 14,250 struck, nearly every piece experienced some degree of circulation in the hustle-bustle California economy. Indeed, an estimated 160 to 225 survive, usually VF to EF, with AU examples considered rare. It is estimated that fewer than a half dozen true Mint State examples of the date can be accounted for today, and the Pogue Collection specimen is the finest among that tiny number. (NGC has certified a solitary example of the date at Mint State-62 with nothing showing above that in their Census.) The Pogue specimen exceeds numerically and aesthetically any example of the date sold in recent memory and, barring the sudden appearance of a previously unknown specimen, the present 1857-S $3 is absolutely the finest available. PCGS# 7977. NGC ID: 25MB.
