1864 Three-Dollar Gold Piece. MS-67 (PCGS).This incredible 1864 three-dollar gold piece is frosty pale honey-gold with splashes of sunset orange and pale sky blue throughout. The luster fairly leaps from the nearly immaculate surfaces. The present Superb Gem exhibits diagonal striae on both sides indicating that this is an early impression from the dies. The strike is bold and complete with all of Longacres intended design elements fresh and crisp, including the vertical split in the reverse bow that binds the base of the wreath. The date is repunched, plainest at the digits 18; this is seemingly a calling card of all circulation strike threes of this date. A patch of natural planchet surface is found between the point of Libertys truncation and the U in UNITED where some extremely fine lines give the appearance of faint adjustment marks; when tilted in just the right light similar lines appear on Libertys cheek. A hint of natural planchet surface can also be seen at 12 oclock on the reverse at the ends of the wreath, but even this anomaly takes a moment to locate. Only 2,630 circulation strike three-dollar gold pieces were produced in 1864, the smallest Philadelphia Mint output up to that point in time. It is thought that just 125 to 175 examples can be accounted for today. A pleasing VF or EF would be a feather in most collectors caps, and AU coins should be considered rare. The 1864 three is a notable rarity in Choice or finer Mint State grades. At the MS-67 level offered here, it has no peers. This is absolutely one of the most significant three-dollar gold pieces of any issue to appear at auction in recent years.Ex Great Lakes Collection; Larry Hanks, by sale, en bloc, October 2005; D. Brent Pogue; our sale of the D. Brent Pogue Collection, Part III, February 2016, lot 3105.
