1878 $3 Indian Princess Three Dollar NGC MS64

Numismatists just love the Indian princess design on gold coins! If you are putting together a type set of U.S. gold, you should consider including an Indian princess. NGC has graded 444 as MS64, with 229 finer. Ron Guth writes, "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." Collectors of iconic American Indian imagery on coins would love a specimen such as this.

Scholar Cornelius Vermeule writes that the bonnet atop the Indian Princess is similar to "sculptures before tobacconists' shops..."

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. 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."