1859 $3 Indian Princess Three Dollar NGC PR61CAM - rare!!

Very rare issue! Around 12 to 16 known!

The number of examples delivered to collectors in 1859 is more important than the mintage. In 2005, David Bowers wrote: "Although Mint records indicate 80 Proofs were struck, it must have been the case that no more than a third were ever distributed." It was the next year that Jeff Garrett and Ron Guth indicated a slightly higher figure: "The number of survivors ... supports a true mintage figure of about three-dozen coins."

NGC has graded one example as Proof-61 Cameo, with 5 finer.

PCGS estimates that there are 12 to 16 existing pieces. Heritage states that there are four of them in museums. Writes Heritage Auctions, “Norman Stack estimated six to 10 pieces in 1974, David Akers said six to eight pieces in 1974, revising his estimate upward to 10 to 12 in 1976. Dave Bowers mentioned 11 to 13 proofs in 2005.”

Wax engraving on a copper disc by James B. Longacre of his Indian Princess design. Photo: Heritage Auction Galleries.

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. 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.”