1855-S $3 Indian Princess Three Dollar PCGS XF45 - First San Francisco Issue!

This piece is a representative of the first of just four collectible S-Mint issues in this popular series, and has a documented mintage of 6,600 examples. Plus it is the first San Francisco issue of this series! The vast majority of these coins saw heavy circulation in Gold Rush California, where gold coins were used in day-to-day commerce. The typical piece grades VF or XF, as is this specimen. PCGS has awarded the grade of XF45 to 43 examples, with 57 finer.

Cornelius Vermeule writes that "sculptures before tobacconists' shops sported faces, tresses, and bonnets of this type."

Numismatic art scholar Cornelius Vermeule writes, "The 'princess'... is a banknote engraver's elegant version of folk art of the 1850s. The plumes or feathers are more like the crest of the Prince of Wales than anything that saw the Western frontiers, save perhaps on a music hall beauty. 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."