Lot 1164
1860-S. PCGS graded AU-58. Nice golden toning and exceptionally appealing for this key date issue. Only 7,000 struck, and for nearly 5 decades a debate raged that 2,592 of these were melted. That controversy has finally been laid to rest by numistatic researcher R.W. Julian in 2017 where he published his findings in The Centinal, June 2017 (Volume 65, Number 2), pages 45-50. Julian's findings record that Mint Director Henry Linderman, on visiting the San Francisco Mint in October of 1869 reviewed a group of $3 gold coins that had been sweated or treated in a manner which removed some of their gold, making them lightweight. Persons of nefarious intentions would remove some of the gold, then spend the coin for the full $3 value. It is assumed that the so treated gold coins were then melted at Linderman's order, but these had nothing to do with the later production of the 1860-S $3 pieces. Nevertheless, this date remains one of the tougher dates to find at all, and is all but unobtainable in full Mint condition as just a few coins that have been certified at that lofty grade level. Here is one that is truly close to that state of preservation, with nearly perfect surfaces, lovely antique gold color and a better than average strike. Pop 10; 5 finer, 1 in 60, 2 in 61, 2 in 62. (PCGS # 7981) Estimate Value $15,000 - 16,000
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