1856 Indian Princess Head Gold Dollar, Type 3, Slanted 5, Philadelphia Mint

North America, United States, Philadelphia Mint. A United States one-dollar gold piece of the Type III Indian Princess Head design by Chief Engraver James Barton Longacre. This is a regular business strike of the Slanted 5 variety, in which the second to last digit of the date leans noticeably. The gold has tested at 90.7 percent fineness. On the obverse, Liberty appears in profile wearing a feathered headdress, and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA runs around the rim. The reverse centers "1 DOLLAR" over the date, all inside a full agricultural wreath tied with a bow at the bottom. Compared with the earlier type, the portrait is larger and in lower relief, a redesign meant to give a fuller strike. This is one of the most available dates in the Type III series, which makes it a natural choice for anyone building a three-type gold dollar set. The gold dollar was the smallest gold coin the United States issued for regular circulation. Congress authorized it together with the double eagle in 1849, as a way to coin the flood of California Gold Rush metal arriving in the East. The denomination was struck every year until 1889, but mintages fell sharply after the Civil War. Before the war it was an everyday coin, and most surviving pre-war examples show the wear of real use. Collectors know the series by its three designs. Type I, with a Liberty head like the one on the double eagle, was struck on a small planchet about 13 mm across. In 1854 the coin was widened to about 15 mm so it was easier to handle, and the Type II Indian Princess design was introduced. That design had a production problem. The deep recesses of the high-relief portrait sat directly opposite the central digits of the date on the reverse, and metal could not fill both at once. As a result, most Type II coins are weak at the center of the date. Type II is by far the scarcest of the three designs, with fewer than two million struck in total. Longacre's Type III revision fixed the problem. He enlarged the head, rearranged the hair, and moved the headdress closer to horizontal, so that fewer deep areas of the two dies faced each other. Philadelphia generally struck the new design well. Some branch-mint coins, especially from Dahlonega, are often soft. Mintages within Type III vary enormously. Philadelphia struck close to two million pieces in the first year of the design, but some later dates reached only a few thousand. The 1875 issue totaled just 400 business strikes and 20 Proofs. The 1856-D and 1861-D are the series' great rarities. Uncirculated gold dollars are rare for most dates before 1879. After that year, jewelers, numismatists, and the public began hoarding the denomination, so later low-mintage dates survive in Mint State more often than earlier ones. Today most demand comes from type collectors who want one example of each of the three designs, and a high-mintage date like this one is the usual Type III choice. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids. Item # 206004

估價:$400

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