Lot 2229
1876 $3 Gold. PCGS graded Proof 65 Deep Cameo. Encased in PCGS holder 10757710. A blazing gem! The Proof-only status of the 1876 $3 gold piece has secured it limitless fame over the 131 years of its existence, a fame it clearly deserves. A well documented rarity with a splendid auction track record, the this year's importance is assured by a mintage of just 45 pieces. Although struck from a single set of Proof dies, there were two deliveries during the year. The earliest group of coins, numbering 20 pieces, was produced on February 19. The dies were then stored until a further 25 coins were minted on June 13. The collector must allow for duplication in arriving at the number of surviving 1876 threes, but even so it seems that no more than 25 to 30 pieces are left in collections today. The census of unimpaired examples, conversely, is far fewer, with at least a dozen specimens having been cleaned without due care and attention, or worse, used as pocket pieces.
This high quality PCGS certified Gem Cameo Proof 65 beauty displays strong contrast between the fields and devices. There is a customary "halo" effect in intervals around the head of Liberty, the result of slight granularity in the fields. The color is gorgeous: a bright gold with brilliant, virtuous levels of glitter and sparkle. Of course, collectors seeing the photos understand this coin is crisply struck for the date, best of all entirely so. Certainly a coin that gets proper mention where completeness of design is almost always a prime determiner of the grade. In short, a majestic example of this important $3 gold rarity.
Pop 4; 1 finer in 66 (PCGS # 98040) .
Among 1870s decade Philadelphia Mint coins, mintages were very low, save for 41,800 struck in 1874 and 82,304 in 1878. Regarding these two higher-mintage dates, it is likely that thoughts of the resumption of payments of gold coins at par, which had not been done since December 28, 1861, would create a demand for $3 pieces. However, the forecasters at the Treasury Department were wrong, and no widespread interest ever developed.
Coinage reached its first low point in 1873, when only a few hundred pieces seem to have been struck. A few years later, even fewer coins were made, with just 20 being struck in 1875 and only 45 in 1876, these being Proofs only for collectors.
Beginning in 1879 and continuing to the end of the series in 1889, there was a modest investment and speculative interest by the public in $3 gold coins, and more Mint State pieces as well as Proofs were saved than would have been the case otherwise. However, none are really common, as the low mintages indicate.
Estimated Value $75,000 - 85,000.
|
| |
| Realized $92,000 |
