1873 Closed 3

The 1873 Three-Dollar Indian Princess survives in two date logotypes, and the Closed 3 marks the original punch used at the start of the calendar year. The combined Philadelphia mintage of 41,820 coins is reported in the Mint Director's annual statement without breaking out the variety split, but die-survey work by PCGS and long-term auction tracking both place the Closed 3 at a small fraction of the total. The variant exists because Director Henry Linderman ordered the date logotypes recut partway through the year after complaining that the original 3 looked confusingly like an 8 at small denominations. Dies cut from the first punch were retired as the new Open 3 logotype reached the coining presses, leaving the Closed 3 as the scarcer of the two 1873 marriages and a candidate for Variety classification rather than the Regular tile currently displayed.

Authentication starts at the date itself. Under 5x magnification the Closed 3 shows the upper and lower curls of the numeral nearly touching at their tips, producing the squat, ball-like profile that prompted Linderman's intervention; the Open 3 displays a clear gap between curls and reads cleanly as a 3 even at arm's length. Beyond the date diagnostic, weight should hold to the 5.015 gram standard against the 20.5 mm diameter, with cast counterfeits typically running a tenth of a gram light and showing the granular field texture that a sand mold leaves behind. The Type 2 reverse layout with the larger DOLLARS lettering applies to all 1873 strikings, and the reeded edge should display crisply spaced reeds with the standard ↑↓ coin alignment between obverse and reverse.

For variety collectors and date-set builders alike, the 1873 Closed 3 carries premiums well above its more common Open 3 sibling at every grade level, and certified examples through PCGS or NGC are essentially required at any serious price point given the volume of attribution disputes that surround the issue. Most surviving Closed 3 pieces grade in the lower circulated range, with mint-state survivors uncommon and gem-quality examples genuinely rare on the auction market. Builders working through the Indian Princess run should expect to pay a meaningful premium over the year's combined catalog values to secure a properly attributed Closed 3. See the full Three-Dollar Gold series history.