1872 Three-Dollar Gold Piece. AU-53 (PCGS).A bright, mostly honey-gold example with subtle rose highlights here and there around the peripheries. Boldly defined with appreciable remnants of a modestly semi-prooflike finish in the fields. Struck during an era when this denomination had long since ceased to play an important role in commerce, the 1872 has a paltry circulation strike mintage of 2,000 pieces. Q. David Bowers and Douglas Winter (<em>The United States $3 Gold Pieces: 1854-1889</em>, 2005) suggest that these coins were made primarily as gifts for contemporary collectors who were willing to pay a premium for them. Regardless, survivors are elusive and number fewer than 350 coins in all grades.
