The
Unwanted Gold $3 By Mark Benvenuto,
Coins Magazine
March 16, 2009
The
Gold $3 piece was not a denomination called for by the Mint
Act of 1792. It wasn't authorized when the branch mints in
Charlotte and Dahlonega were authorized, specifically to coin
newly found gold as Americans pushed west. It was never a
particularly popular coin, and didn't circulate too much.
Yet the U.S. Mint pounded out gold $3s from 1854-1889, and
did so, at one time or another, from four different mint facilities.
With all that going for and against it, one
wonders if there are any gold $3 coins that qualify as key
coins within this quirky series. A close look at the mintages
indicate that fully three quarters of the years might qualify
as keys.
That last statement begs a bit of explanation.
How does a collector define a key coin? Is it by population,
or is it by demand, or is it both? Or, perhaps, there is some
other way to define a key coin? For fun, let's compare a couple
of well-known key coins in different series against some of
the gold $3s.
How about the 1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln cent for
starters? That's as key as a coin can get. Just about every
collector has heard of this coveted Lincoln variety, with
the prominent initials of its designer, Victor D. Brenner.
There were 484,000 of them minted. That's actually a tiny
number when you compare it to the 72.7 million 1909 Lincoln
cents made that year in Philadelphia without the initials,
or the 27.9 million 1909 V.D.B. cents. But it's still 484,000
coins.
One of these key cents will cost a collector
around $1,010 in Fine-12, or $1,650 in Mint State-60. It's
not a king's ransom in either case, but it's not pocket change
when one considers this is a small copper coin containing
no precious metal.
How about the 1916-D Mercury dime? There were
264,000 of them minted. These then are rarer coins than the
1909-S V.D.B. Lincolns, and their prices seem to reflect it.
In F-12, this is a $2,750 coin, and in MS-60 it is a $13,200
coin. By any count, that's a lot of money for one thin dime.
But still, that's a pretty fair number of coins from which
to choose.
How about the 1849 gold $20? Does that coin,
with its mintage of one, qualify as a key? It is housed in
the Smithsonian collection, is the rarest a coin can possibly
be, and is never going to be auctioned, at least as far as
any of us know. It's certainly an unobtainable coin, but it
may be so rare it can't be considered a key, precisely because
it can't be collected.
Now, when it comes to gold $3s, the 1873 has
a mintage of 20 and so does the 1875. The 1876 has a mintage
of 45. Without a doubt, these have got to be key coins. They
generally don't have prices listed in the mint state grades,
at least not in most standard price sheets.
Now, even though those key coins prices are
higher than most of us will ever spend on a single coin, how
come they aren't higher still? They are certainly many times
rarer than the 1909-S V.D.B. cent or the 1916-D dime. Why
aren't these key gold pieces through the roof?
The answer to that is that there is only a
certain price level the market can stand for any given coin.
It's more than just a number minted. In addition, there is
no direct comparison between the mintages for key coins in
one series and key coins in another.
To prove that last point, note that there
were never more than 138,618 gold $3s in any one year, at
any one mint. That first year of issue, 1854, saw this figure
come out of the Philadelphia Mint, followed by a trickle of
24,000 of the 1854-O coins from New Orleans, followed by the
tiny 1,120 pieces listed as 1854-D from Dahlonega. The only
other year ever to come close to this first year total was
1878, when the Philadelphia Mint alone made them, to the tune
of 82,324 coins.
As a matter of fact, there were only eight
years in the entire span from 1854-1889 that even went into
the five-figure production range, beyond the two years I have
just mentioned. We just have to face the facts here, gold
$3s are scarce coins at best, and rare coins at worst. Even
at their most common, there are less of any of the gold $3s
than there are of the key Lincoln cent or Mercury dime.
But this still brings us back to the original
question I posed: What makes a key coin? Yes, the mintage
is involved, but there has to be much more. The collector
desire has to be there.
Condition of surviving coins needs to be taken
into account, as does the number of collectors who go after
a particular series. If the collectors aren't looking at the
entire series (perhaps because it is perceived as too expensive
or because it is perceived as a series from which most people
simply get a type coin), even a rare coin might not be considered
really a key date or mintmark.
The gold $3s actually help prove that last
point, as several years within the series saw mintages of
less than 5,000 coins. That's low, no doubt about it. But
how many collectors try to assemble a complete set of gold
$3s?
Answering this last question with the word
"few" brings a realization with it. The realization
is that when a series has key coins, or even semi-key coins,
within it, but the series isn't heavily collected, there is
the possibility of a lot of sleepers. Sleepers are generally
considered undervalued coins. And in a series like the gold
$3s, there are quite a few dates that qualify, based at least
on the key coins I have mentioned.
For example, the 1881 has a total of 554 coins
to its name. That's actually a large number when you compare
it to the three keys I have mentioned, but it is much less
than the 50,555 gold $3s minted at Philadelphia in 1855, the
third highest year of mintage for the series. But the 1855
has a price tag of $900 in Very Fine-20, whereas the 1881
sports a $1,400 tag in the same grade. Neither is a junk box
coin by any means. Yet this coin, which probably qualifies
as a semi-key, is 10 times as rare as the 1855. Yet it is
less than double the price.
Interestingly, the 1885 is the next rarest
of the gold $3s. There were only 910 of these coins made.
Yet, in VF-20, it currently costs $1,300. The coin is still
a semi-key, hasn't even twice the mintage of the 1881, yet
it costs less than the 1881. This could be a sleeper.
With this talk of key and semi-key coins drifting
into a discussion of sleepers, let's throw one more important
factor into the mix, one that will bring us sharply back to
reality. That is availability.
When it comes to gold $3s, it seems that a
person will have to be patient whether they are collecting
keys, semi-keys, or even some of the more common coins. The
1854, with its 138,618 mintage, is probably not an impossible
piece to find at a major show, and thus start your collection.
The 1878 might not be too difficult either.
The 1855, and even the 1874 (a 41,820 total
here), might be found if you look about at enough well-stocked
dealerships or shows. But for all those dates that drop below
20,000 coins, the gold $3s are going to be tough to find.
They may qualify as sleepers, since they remain
few in number but are reasonably priced. But all this gets
considered before you get to what have to be considered the
semi-key and key-date coins within the series.