1873 Open 3 Proof

The 1873 Open 3 proof two-cent piece is classified as a restrike. PCGS and other specialists consider the Closed 3 the "original" 1873 proof, struck at the beginning of the year, and the Open 3 a later production that used the modified Open 3 punch after the shape change. Approximately 500 Open 3 proofs were struck, making it scarcer than the Closed 3 at 600 proofs.

The Open 3 is roughly 2.5 times rarer than the Closed 3 in surviving population, and gem examples in PR66 or better are extremely rare. A PR66+ Red-Brown brought $15,600 at Stack's Bowers in 2019. The Closed/Open 3 distinction on two-cent pieces was first publicized by Harry X Boosel in the 1960s, who identified the varieties across multiple 1873 denominations as a coherent collecting category. Before Boosel's work, the varieties were known to specialists but not systematically catalogued.

The 1873 Open 3 is the absolute final issue of the two-cent piece series. After these proofs, no more would be struck. The coin that had been introduced in 1864 as the first IN GOD WE TRUST issue ended in 1873 as a proof-only collector item, produced in small quantity for the numismatic market and never again. A collector building a complete date-and-variety set of two-cent pieces finishes here, with the Open 3 proof as the closing entry.