1857-S $3 Indian Princess Three Dollar PCGS AU50

A longtime favorite of collectors, the Indian Princess design is simply stunning. The year 1857 saw a plentiful supply of gold dust in the San Francisco area after the Gold Rush that started in 1848. At that time, there was still an important need for lower denomination gold coins on the West Coast. That gold dust was employed to produce the coin offered here by AUCM. The mintage for this issue was only 14,250. PCGS has graded 24 as AU50 with 49 finer. Collectors Universe prices the 1857-S $3 at $6,000.00 in AU50.

James B. Longacre, who crafted the beautiful Indian Princess motif upon our gold coinage. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

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? …