1856 $3 Indian Princess Three Dollar NGC MS61

The 1856 $3 gold piece had a small mintage of 26,010 coins, and many survivors show some evidence of circulation. Jeff Garrett and Ron Guth report that this date seldom appears at auction, and that Mint State specimens are rare. Of U.S. $3 Gold Pieces, Dave Bowers agrees: “In Mint State the rarity of the 1856 is not widely appreciated.” NGC has graded 59 as MS61 with 81 finer. Collectors Universe has given this issue a price of $4,500.00 in MS61.

A cigar store Indian, which scholar Cornelius Vermeule says has a similar bonnet to the Indian Princess coin design.

The design upon the gold $3 gold piece obverse presents a head representing an Indian princess with her hair tightly curling upon her neck, her head adorned with a ring of feathers encircled with a band inscribed LIBERTY. Upon the field of the reverse is found a wreath of tobacco, wheat, corn, and cotton. Numismatic art scholar Cornelius Vermeule writes, "The 'princess'... is a banknote engraver's elegant version of folk art of the 1850s …. Iconographically this type of Indian maiden had occurred in American and 'primitive' paintings for many years past. The figureheads of ships and the sculptures before tobacconists' shops sported faces, tresses, and bonnets of this type."