This memorable 1886 $3 is a bright honey-gold gem with prooflike tendencies. The satiny and lustrous surfaces display a lightly frosted portrait of Liberty that forms a modest cameo contrast with the mirrored field; the reverse is somewhat less cameo-like. The strike is sharp throughout. The reverse die has been lapped leaving the leaf to the left of the date thin and tenuous, and the inner portion of the right bow knot has also been diminished. A scattering of faint marks comes to light under low magnification, including a tiny tick on Liberty’s nose near her eye, a small horizontal mark on her cheek below the mouth, and a tiny mark in the field between D and her face. The reverse has but a few tiny and insignificant marks. Readily among the finest circulation strikes of the date extant, from a mintage of 1,000 pieces. It is thought that just 25 to 40 Mint State coins can be accounted for today, heavily concentrated at the low end of the Uncirculated range. (Proofs are more numerous for this date with an estimated 80 to 100 known!) About four times as many circulated examples are known than are Mint State pieces, with most in the About Uncirculated category. Circulation strikes are rare enough that many collectors seek out Proof examples instead. We offered a Proof in the Harry Bass Collection though Harry thought of it as a “prooflike business strike.” The Jewell Collection (American Numismatic Rarities, March 2005) offered perhaps the only example of the date known that rivals the Pogue Collection specimen; it was graded MS-65 PL by NGC. PCGS# 8008. NGC ID: 25N9.
