Indian Princess Large Head Gold Dollars (1856–1889)

Longacre Corrected the Relief Problem by Making the Portrait Both Larger and Flatter

The Type 2 Indian Princess gold dollar had failed because its obverse relief was too high; metal that should have filled the reverse die was instead displaced through the deep recesses of the obverse portrait. Longacre's 1856 correction addressed the geometry of the problem directly. He enlarged the portrait while simultaneously reducing its depth, so the obverse no longer opposed the reverse with the same force. He also repositioned the feather headdress to a more nearly horizontal angle, reducing the height of the design's most prominent features, and moved the inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA closer to the rim where it would no longer compete with the reverse wreath for metal flow during striking. The result was a coin that struck up properly in most cases, including the central digits of the date, which had been the most obvious failure point of the preceding type. The Large Head design, as it is known in the specialist literature, was the gold dollar's third and final obverse treatment; it remained in production without further modification until the denomination was discontinued in 1889.¹

The Civil War Closed the Southern Branch Mints and Produced the Series' Most Storied Rarity

Charlotte and Dahlonega struck Type 3 gold dollars continuously from 1856 through the end of their operation in 1861, when both facilities were closed following secession. The 1856-D (1,460 struck) and 1860-D (1,566 struck) are among the scarcest dates in the series from those mints; the 1861-D stands apart entirely. The Dahlonega Mint was seized by Confederate authorities in April 1861, and the gold dollars struck there in May of that year were produced by the new Confederate state administration using a leftover 1860-D obverse die rather than the freshly shipped Philadelphia die. This production detail is legible on every surviving example: the U in UNITED is faint and the N is weak on all known specimens, a defect inherent in the worn die the Confederates employed. The mintage is estimated between 1,000 and 1,500 coins. The 1861-D is the only circulating United States coin struck exclusively by Confederate authorities, a distinction that sustains its demand well beyond what the mintage figure alone would explain. More than half of the known survivors grade About Uncirculated 50 or better, a rate far above normal for a coin of this mintage, because the local population recognized the coin's historical significance and saved examples as souvenirs from the first days of production. Heritage Auctions, May 3, 2023, lot 3184, PCGS Mint State 63 CAC, realized $180,000.²

The 1875 Is the Nadir of the Series and the Key Philadelphia Rarity

By 1875 the gold dollar had been commercially irrelevant for more than a decade. Gold coins had ceased to circulate during the Civil War and had not returned to general commerce in the East. Philadelphia struck only 400 business-strike gold dollars that year, along with 20 Proofs. All 400 business strikes are prooflike; the highly reflective surfaces are characteristic of this issue and not evidence of Proof status, though a thorn visible at the base of Liberty's jaw on business strikes distinguishes them from the Proofs. Bowers estimates 70 to 100 survivors in all grades, with 40 to 60 in Mint State. The issue did not circulate in any meaningful sense; numismatists and the public who were aware of the tiny production set coins aside almost immediately. The 1875 is the rarest business-strike Philadelphia date in the Type 3 series and one of the genuinely recognized low-mintage rarities of 19th-century federal gold coinage.³

Post-1878 Philadelphia Dates Survive in Gem Condition at Rates Their Mintages Do Not Predict

Beginning around 1878 and accelerating through the 1880s, jewelers, numismatists, and private individuals made a practice of hoarding gold dollars as Christmas and New Year's gifts. The coin's small size and gold content made it an ideal gift token, and the practice of setting aside freshly minted pieces ensured that coins from the final decade of the series survive in Uncirculated condition at far higher rates than their low mintages would suggest. A Philadelphia gold dollar from 1879 through 1889 with a mintage of 1,500 to 11,000 pieces may be easier to find in Gem (Mint State 65 or finer) than a Philadelphia Type 1 gold dollar from 1851 with a mintage exceeding 3,000,000, simply because the earlier coin circulated hard and the later coin went directly into a pocket or envelope. PCGS has certified two examples at Mint State 69, one dated 1864 and one dated 1880. The denomination was declared obsolete in 1889 and discontinued, ending a 40-year production run that had begun in the first year of the California gold rush.⁴

Building the Set

A type set requires one coin; any mid-1880s Philadelphia piece in About Uncirculated to Mint State 63 provides a correctly struck Large Head dollar at modest cost. The series supports three distinct collecting approaches beyond the type set. The first is a branch mint set, assembling one coin each from Charlotte, Dahlonega, and San Francisco alongside Philadelphia, spanning the 1856-to-1861 period before the southern mints closed; this project is demanding but achievable in circulated grades with patience. The second is a complete date-and-mintmark set across the full 1856-to-1889 run, a substantial undertaking where the 1856-D, 1860-D, and 1861-D will require significant time and budget, and the 1875 will require both in quantity. The third, accessible to the broadest range of collectors, is a late-date Philadelphia set from 1879 through 1889, where nearly every issue is findable in Mint State and several can be had in Gem at reasonable cost. The 1861-D is the series' center of gravity regardless of collecting approach; no serious collection of the series is complete in the specialist sense without addressing it. The primary specialist reference for all three gold dollar types is Bowers, Q. David, A Guide Book of Gold Dollars, 2nd ed. (Atlanta: Whitman Publishing, 2011).⁵