By Doug Winter – RareGoldCoins.com
During the last year or so, I have been working on a series of articles that discusses the ten rarest individual issues in each of the Liberty Head denominations. I haven’t done one of these articles since October 2008 when I wrote about the ten rarest Liberty Head quarter eagles.
Gold dollars are a series that is on my mind right now, especially considering I am selling a wonderful group of Type Three Proofs known as the Tri-Star Collection. This seems like a good segue into this article.
The gold dollar coinage was produced from 1849 through 1889. These are the smallest gold coins struck by the United States mints, both in terms of value and size. Coins were produced at the following mints:
- Philadelphia: 1849-1889
- Charlotte: 1849-1853, 1855, 1857, 1859
- Dahlonega: 1849-1861
- New Orleans: 1849-1853, 1855
- San Francisco: 1856-1860, 1870
There are three varieties of gold dollar. The first, known as the Type One, was struck from 1849 to 1854. It is easily recognizable by the use of Longacre’s Liberty Head obverse. The Type One dollars have a diameter of 12.7 millimeters and weigh 1.67 grams. The second variety, known as the Type Two, was made in 1854, 1855 and 1856. It features an Indian Head obverse design with a small head. It has a diameter of 15 millimeters. The final variety, known as the Type Three, was produced from 1856 until this denomination was abolished in 1889. It has another variation of the Indian Head design, this time with the portrait larger in size. It is the same size and weight as the Type Two design.
As a series, gold dollars are more popular than many non-specialists realize. The natural inclination that most people have is that since these coins are so small, they are not readily collectible. I have found this to be untrue and I am aware of a number of people who either collect all the gold dollars by date or they specialize in one or two of the mints (usually Charlotte or Dahlonega). Read the full article →
