1878 $3 Indian Princess Three Dollar NGC MS63

Here's a simply fantastic type coin, one with a design that numismatists have been falling in love with for well over 100 years! Ron Guth tells us that "The 1878 is known for its frosty luster which, on high grade pieces, has a shimmering effect that is simply lovely. The strike is usually good, but sometimes weak on the knot at the base of the wreath." NGC has graded 541 as MS63, with 686 finer. Collectors of iconic American Indian imagery on coins would love a specimen such as this.

James B. Longacre, who crafted the beautiful Indian Princess design for gold coinage. Photo: wikipedia.

After many years of presenting Liberty heads derivative of classical Rome and Greece upon our coinage, here is one that is quintessentially American. Chief Engraver James B. Longacre was given the opportunity to craft his own vision of American Liberty, and he turned to the American Indian, the first people of our great land for inspiration. He wrote:

Why should we in seeking a type for the illustration or symbol of a nation that need not hold itself lower than the Roman virtue or the Science of Greece prefer the ... period of a remote and distant people, from which to draw an emblem of nationality: to the aboriginal period of our own land: especially when the latter presents us with a characteristic distinction not less interesting, and more peculiar than that which still casts its chain over the civilized portion of the older continent? Why not be American from the spring-head within our own domain? ... From the copper shores of Lake Superior to the silver mountains of Potosi, from the Ojibwa to the Araucanian, the feathered tiara is a characteristic of the primitiveness of our hemisphere as the turban is of the Asiatic.