1860-S Three-Dollar Gold Piece. AU-55 (NGC).

Ample satin luster remains on both sides of this boldly defined three-dollar gold piece. The lightly toned pinkish-honey surfaces have few sizable marks for a circulated three-dollar gold coin from the San Francisco Mint. The 1860-S (just 7,000 pieces produced), is the rarest of the early date three-dollar gold issues from the West Coast facility. In their 2005 book The United States $3 Gold Pieces: 1854-1889, Q. David Bowers and Douglas Winter account for fewer than 150 survivors in all grades. The vast majority of examples grade no finer than VF. About Uncirculated coins, as here, are rare, while Mint State pieces are exceedingly so. An important offering for three-dollar gold specialists.

PCGS# 7981. NGC ID: 25MF.

From the Francesca Collection.