1856 Three-Dollar Gold Piece. MS-66 (PCGS). CAC.This exquisite Gem displays deep honey-gold surfaces accented with bursts of rich and satiny yellow frost. The fields are immaculate and the strike is about as fine as ever seen for the design type, fresh and crisp in the ostrich plumes and Libertys tresses, and equally nice on the reverse where just a hint of weakness is seen at the top of the bow. Full designers initials JBL on Libertys truncation signifies an early and unlapped state of the die. Low magnification and a bold light source reveal that the surfaces are virtually pristine with only a few trivial blemishes.Today in retrospect in seems a puzzlement that three-dollar gold coins were ever issued in the first place, considering that the quarter eagle of similar value had been struck since 1796. But issued they were, under authorization of the Act of February 21, 1853, the same piece of legislation that reduced the weight of certain silver coins (resulting in arrows being added to the dates). Some numismatists have suggested that the owner of a three-dollar gold piece could have purchased a sheet of 100 three-cent stamps without requiring change, or could go to a bank and easily obtain 100 silver three-cent pieces.In a flurry of enthusiasm, in the first year of coinage, 1854, the Philadelphia Mint struck 138,618 circulation strikes -- a figure that would forever stand as the highest production in the series. Small quantities were made at the Dahlonega and New Orleans branch mints, after which those facilities never produced the denomination again. The San Francisco Mint first struck three-dollar gold coins in 1856, continuing to 1860, except for 1858 and 1859, after which just two were struck in 1870 for the cornerstone of the new Mint (of which just one example survives today). Coinage continued at the Philadelphia Mint through 1889, but in sharply reduced numbers. Very few of the later date examples ever reached circulation.Four pairs of dies were made for use at the Philadelphia Mint in 1856, but only two reverse dies were employed to deliver 26,010 circulation strikes. These include what are called today the Low Date and High Date varieties. The present Gem Mint State piece is of the Low Date style, though there is not much space between DOLLARS and the bow below for these differences to be immediately noticeable. The digit 1 in the date is immediately centered below the letter O in DOLLARS; on the High Date variety the 1 is beneath the right side of the O. All of the three-dollar gold coins of this date were delivered in two batches in April of the year; perhaps they were from the two different reverses.From Heritages ANA Sale of July 2005, lot 10330; Hank Daughtry Collection; Larry Hanks, by sale, August 2006; our sale of the D. Brent Pogue Collection, Part III, February 2016, lot 3094.
