Gold dollars are small. Actually, it is probably better to say they are tiny. They contain .0484 ounce of gold bullion, and depending on which of the three types they are, measure 13 millimeters or 15mm in diameter. A dime is 17.9mm.
But tiny might be a good thing. Bullion value is just $82 worth of gold, so that shouldn’t keep collectors away from them. Collector value has a greater impact on actual prices.
Gold dollars are great to study because they reflect the history of the growing nation that was the United States in 1849. Moreover, it is a collection that many can attempt because it has few great rarities to prevent completion of a set – at least in circulated grades.
The gold dollar was a classic reflection if its times. Had gold not been discovered in California, setting off the Gold Rush, it is uncertain whether there ever would have been a gold dollar coin minted by the U.S. Mint.
There had been no initial provision in the Mint Act of 1792 for a gold dollar. That denomination was to be silver. That was similar to many of the other nations of the world at the time. A gold half escudo of Spain was one-sixteenth of the 8 escudo coin at .0475 ounce. That was fairly close.
The silver dollar of the United States was to last only a decade as there were problems as the coins were exported when they were issued, creating a severe shortage of American coins. Production of the silver dollar coin was suspended to free up time and resources for lower denominations that would circulate.
Apparently, the silver dollar was not missed. Even when it returned in 1840 there was no rush to use it. If anything, it appears that the public had simply forgotten about the silver dollar or perhaps because of its size had decided that other coins would serve the purpose even better than the silver dollar.
Actually, down in the hills of Appalachia starting in 1831 there was a very real substitute in the form of privately produced gold dollars that were created by the Bechtler family. The gold fields with apparently few regular U.S. coins in the area had seen the rise of private mints and with gold being the readily available metal, the idea of a gold dollar was natural and based on repeated mintages it would appear that the Bechtler family gold dollars had a very real following long before the United States ever issued its first gold dollar.
There is no separating the discovery of gold in California from the U.S. version of the gold dollar as no sooner had the gold deposits been discovered than the gold dollar and the gold $20 were authorized by Congress. This was no accident. With huge quantities of gold coming from California, it was possible to make these new denominations viable.
The first gold dollar came off the presses in 1849 and it was with a couple of varieties as the wreath on the reverse was either open or closed if the coin was produced in Philadelphia or Charlotte, N.C., but open only if they were produced in Dahlonega, Ga., or New Orleans, La.
The obverse of the first gold dollar would be similar to the double eagle, with a Liberty Head. It would last until 1854. The first of these are easily acquired as a type coin for $130 in F-12, less than twice bullion value. In MS-60, one can be had for around $335.
There are a number of interesting dates of the Type 1 design starting with the 1849-C with an open wreath, which was part of an overall mintage of 11,634. The rest of the mintage was the closed wreath variety. The open wreath examples are very rare, with Coin Market prices ranging from $135,000 to $600,000. The closed wreath runs $800 in F-12 to $8,850 in MS-60 – prices that seem almost cheap in comparison. Collectors today can simply exclude the rare variety from their sets.
The difference in availability of the two varieties of the 1849-C can be seen in the fact that the Professional Coin Grading Service has graded 94 of the closed wreath variety and two of the open wreath.
The 1850-O is a lesser known date that has the distinction of being the lowest mintage gold dollar from New Orleans. In fact, the issues of New Orleans do not get the respect they deserve because they are in the shadow of the Dahlonega and Charlotte mintages, which were often lower. The fact is that New Orleans produced some very tough dates and many of them are nearly impossible to obtain in Mint State. The 1850-O despite a low mintage is $200 in F-12 and while listed for $3,300 in MS-60 it is tough in that grade and basically unknown in any grade higher than MS-63.
The 1850-O tends to be overlooked as the year saw the 1850-C with a mintage of 6,966 while the 1850-D was at 8,382 and both of these figures are lower than the 14,000 mintage of the 1850-O. That puts the 1850-D at $1,050 in F-12 and the 1850-C at $900 in the same grade.
Another extremely interesting date of the Liberty Head type of gold dollar is the 1854-S, which had a mintage of 14,632. In the case of the 1854-S, the mintage was less important than the fact that it was the first year of production at the new branch mint in San Francisco and that the 1854-S would be the only gold dollar of its type produced in San Francisco. That makes its $260 F-12 price a good deal on a tough and very historical coin.
If you do not include the open wreath 1849-C, it is very possible that you can complete a circulated Liberty Head gold dollar collection without too much trouble. At minimum a set from all the different facilities would be a worthy goal and it is a collection with a rich history as it includes five mints.
The 1854 mintages saw a change with the mintages in some cases in that year as well as 1855 and for the 1856-S were all of the short-lived Type 2 design of a small Indian Head. It is frankly a little hard to explain why Liberty was changed to wearing a headdress that looks like a socialite’s ostrich plumes.
The small Indian Head type is more difficult thanks to its short time in production and small mintages. There are only six Type 2 coins and only the 1854 and 1855 are viewed as generally available at an F-12 price of $250 and an MS-60 price of $1,680.
The other dates are definitely tougher starting with the 1855-O, which had a mintage of 55,000, making it a $345 coin in F-12 and $7,800 in MS-60. The estimates are that there may be as many as 1,500 examples of the 1855-O known, but others place the total at about half that number and the grading services seem to agree as the 1855-O is far from being readily available.
The 1855-C and 1855-D with mintages of 9,803 and 1,811, respectively, are simply tough in any grade. The 1855-C has a current price of $975 in F-12, which is much more affordable than the $3,250 for the 1855-D in the same grade. In MS-60 the 1855-C is $33,000 and the 1855-D is $48,000, putting both out of reach of anyone who is without ample means.
The 1855-C has a well-deserved reputation of being a poorly made issue usually on equally poor planchets. In most cases, the date and the word “Dollar” will be weakly struck and it can safely be suggested that even if you find a nicer example, it will not look anything like an average Philadelphia coin. In fact, in Mint State, the grading service totals bear out the situation with Numismatic Guaranty Corp. calling just eight of 108 Mint State and none is higher than MS-61 while the PCGS total of 110 graded produced only two coins called Mint State and neither was better than MS-61. Those totals speak volumes about the lack of quality found in the 1855-C.
The 1855-D on the other hand not only lacks quality, but also numbers. The suggested number known is put at 50 or so by some, although the grading services might cause that total to be revised higher as PCGS alone has graded 48 examples. Some could certainly be repeat submissions, but if PCGS has seen 48 submissions, we would suspect there are at least more than 50 coins surviving today.
While not as numerous as the 1855-C, the 1855-D was called Mint State four times by PCGS as opposed to only two times for the 1855-C and it would appear to be more available in Mint State at least percentage-wise based on the NGC totals as well.
Apparently the dies for the Type 2 gold dollar did not even reach San Francisco until 1856, which can be understood as they had to travel a great distance at a time when such a trip was a real adventure. The 1856-S was the one Type 2 San Francisco gold dollar and thanks to a mintage of 24,600 it is at least a possible date to acquire. The F-12 is $525 and the MS-60 is $8,650. The high MS-60 price might be surprising, but PCGS reports just 25 Mint State examples out of a total of 125 graded.
The final design, or Type 3, has a large Indian Head on the gold dollar and this was produced for many years, starting in 1856 and concluding in 1889. With such a long period of production, they are available to type collectors at $195 in F-12 and $360 in MS-60. With such a narrow difference, why would you not opt to have an MS-60 coin?
If you want to jump up to a Proof-65 example, you will have to pay at least $10,000. While there are available Type 3 gold dollars, there are also some fascinating and devilishly tough coins. The 1856-D is a good example of the latter. It has a mintage of just 1,460 coins, making it the second lowest mintage Dahlonega gold dollar. The numbers known reflect the mintage with NGC and PCGS combined showing just 86 coins in all grades. Some could be repeats. The probability is that the 1856-D as between 50 and 100 known examples and that means a price of $2,350 in F-12 and $32,000 in MS-60. The two grading services have combined to call 11 examples Mint State, but none reached higher than the MS-62 grade, so quality continues to be an issue.
The 1860-D with a mintage of just 1,566 is another very interesting date. As the last Dahlonega gold dollar to be produced by the United States, it would have an uncertain fate in circulation and that is reflected in the best estimates that suggest that there may be fewer than 100 known. The 1860-D currently lists for $2,150 in F-12 and $19,500 in MS-60.
It is hard to escape the fact that the 1860-D ends up being compared to the 1861-D for good reason. The 1861-D unlike the coin from a year earlier was not a product of the United States. It was produced either by the State of Georgia or by Confederate forces after they seized the facility in April of 1861. It is thought that in Dahlonega at the time there was over $13,000 in gold as well as dies taken from federal hands. Those seizing the facility apparently put both to good use by making gold coins, including gold dollars.
The 1861-D is special as since there was no production of gold dollars that year before the facility was seized, we can be certain that the 1861-D was produced by some government other than the one centered in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, that authority did not leave a record of the total mintage. The best estimates historically have put the total at between 1,000 and 1,500 pieces.
With prices higher than the 1,566-piece 1860-D, the general expectation would be that the 1861-D would be seen in slightly lower numbers than the 1860-D to justify its prices of $4,950 in F-12 and $41,500 in MS-60.
What the grading services show us is interesting. At NGC they report 48 examples of the 1860-D of which six were Mint State and just 23 examples of the 1861-D with eight of those being Mint State. At PCGS, they report 67 examples of the 1860-D, 10 in Mint State, and 53 examples of the 1861-D, 17 called Mint State.
Equally interesting is that the 1861-D gold dollars seen were not only more numerous in Mint State, they were also in higher grades as NGC reported one in MS-63 while PCGS reported an MS-64. In Mint State PCGS showed a single 1860-D in MS-63 while the 1861-D total was six. Certainly the totals are small and while they would seem to suggest that overall the 1861-D is tougher with a likely mintage closer to the lower 1,000 figure, it also appears that for some reason the 1861-D appears to have had greater saving at the time of production. Perhaps those Georgia or Confederate representatives who made them saved them as a souvenirs, or perhaps there were a couple of coin collectors in the group, but the grading service totals suggest that something caused the 1861-D to survive in greater numbers in Mint State than the 1860-D.
There are any number of other elusive Type 3 gold dollars, including the very low mintage 1875, which is thought to have had 20 proofs out of a 420-piece mintage. It helped in terms of survival that it was produced in Philadelphia, but with that mintage, the 1875 is very tough at $1,650 in F-12 and $10,000 in MS-60. The grading services suggest that the 1875 was basically saved only by collectors as 20 of the 24 seen by NGC were Mint State while PCGS reports 40 of 54 in Mint State. Each service reports three proofs. Such high Mint State totals are certainly not normal for a coin of the period that was released to circulation in any numbers.
There are some other interesting dates like the 1870-S, which is currently at $300 in F-12 and $2,650 in MS-60. The 1870-S is certainly worth those prices as it has a listed total mintage of just 3,000 pieces. What makes it all the more a fascinating date is that reportedly 2,000 were made without a mintmark. We cannot really be sure if that is correct and if so if the 2,000 were replaced, or if there were just 1,000 1870-S gold dollars with an “S” mintmark on them. Once again, it is a situation where the grading services might help shed some light on the problem over a century after their issue, but in this case they have combined for roughly 100 examples of the 1870-S. That total is low, but not low if the mintage was only 1,000 mintmarked coins. There is another odd factor appearing in the grading service totals in that the 1870-S appears an unusual number of times in Mint State especially when you consider that whatever its mintage it was low and from San Francisco, but the unusual number of Mint State examples seen goes a long way toward explaining its relatively low Mint State prices.
There are some other dates that have interesting stories and perhaps good values. The 1880, for example, had a mintage of 1,636, yet it can be found for just $235 in F-12 and $475 in MS-60. It appears that the 1880 along with other low mintage dates of the period like the 1879 and 1881 were saved in small hoards of perhaps a few hundred coins. Those hoards were dispersed years ago, but the supply of Mint State examples remains, making them available dates instead of the tough dates their mintages would suggest. For a few extra dollars of expense to buy them, such low mintages cannot help but seem like good value even if you only need one of them for a type set.
The surprisingly available later dates are perhaps a perfect ending for the gold dollar series as it is a denomination with many fascinating coins and stories. Some dates are tougher than expected while others are more available than expected, yet in every case there is a reason to explain this and sometimes the reason is a truly great story, making the gold dollar a great American collection for anyone who likes coins with an interesting past.
