1873-S Open 3

Two date logotypes shaped the 1873 Double Eagle production year, and the San Francisco branch produced both. Mint Engraver William Barber's December 1872 punches rendered the final 3 with knobs so heavy and tight that Chief Coiner A.L. Snowden, in a January 18, 1873 letter to Mint Director James Pollock, complained the digit read as an 8 on smaller gold and silver pieces. Barber recut the logotype with the knobs clearly separated, and the revised Open 3 punches reached the Pacific facility partway through the calendar year. San Francisco's combined output of 1,040,600 pieces was therefore split unevenly between the two date styles, and the Open 3 emerged as the second of the pair to enter the coining presses.

Counterintuitively, the San Francisco ratio inverts the Philadelphia pattern. At the parent Mint the Open 3 dominates by a wide margin, but at the branch facility Douglas Winter regards the Closed 3 as roughly three times more common than the Open 3, with PCGS sources concurring. Estimated survivors of the 1873-S Open 3 cluster around 2,657 examples across all grades, of which only about 65 reach Mint State. PCGS and NGC combined have certified just seven coins at MS62, with none authenticated finer at either service. The single auction benchmark for that ceiling grade remains Heritage's September 2009 sale of lot 1818, a PCGS MS62 example, which realized $28,750 and continues to anchor the variety's published price record.

Strike quality on the SF Open 3 typically runs flat at the central devices, and surfaces are almost always severely abraded from heavy bag handling in commerce, a profile shared with most Type 2 San Francisco issues bearing the With Motto reverse and the "TWENTY D." denomination spelling. Most circulated examples grade in the AU50 to AU55 band, where original color and a measure of luster can still be found. Authentication is essential: holder labels must specify "Open 3" because PCGS and NGC track the two San Francisco varieties under separate catalog numbers, and untyped coins risk being treated as the more available Closed 3. For broader context, see the Liberty Head Double Eagle series history.