1861 Three-Dollar Gold Piece. MS-61 (PCGS). This generally satin-textured coin displays modest hints of reflectivity in the fields. The striking detail is virtually full, and about as close to complete as obtainable for an example of this type made for commercial use. Very smooth for the assigned grade with pleasing light honey-orange color, this appealing coin will enhance any three-dollar gold set in which it is included.<p>Never a popular denomination in commerce, by 1861 the three-dollar gold series had settled into a pattern of small yearly circulation strike mintages that would continue almost without exception until its end in 1889. The Philadelphia Mint produced just 5,959 circulation strikes during the first year of the Civil War, the last year in which gold coins were paid out at face value until the late 1870s. After gold specie payments were suspended on December 28, 1861, the few three-dollar gold pieces held by Northern bullion dealers, banks and exchange offices could be obtained only by paying a premium in paper money. Few, if any, did, for the three-dollar gold piece did not circulate in the East or Midwest for the remainder of the Civil War and into the Reconstruction era. While gold coins continued to circulate on the West Coast, the unpopularity of the three-dollar denomination meant that few such pieces were seen in California, mostly earlier dated examples from the 1850s.<p>Produced in small numbers and seeing very little commercial use, only a few hundred circulation strike 1861 three-dollar gold pieces are estimated to exist, virtually all of which are in higher circulated grades. Most EF and AU survivors were saved as part of bank reserves and snatched up by numismatic dealers during the early 20th century. Mint State coins are far rarer -- Q. David Bowers and Douglas Winter (2005) account for just 35 to 50 examples -- and likely survived purely as a matter of chance. This is one of the few Uncirculated examples that we have offered in recent decades, a superior quality coin that is sure to have no difficulty finding its way into a significant gold cabinet. From the Huberman Collection. Earlier ex our (Stacks) sale of the George F. Scanlon Collection, October 1973, lot 2209. Lot tag included.
