Just 1,000 circulation strikes of the date were produced. Henry Chapman insisted that many remained at the Mint and were later melted. The Bowers-Winter reference suggests some 140 to 170 Mint State pieces may be extant today, mostly in the lower reaches of the grade range, but the estimate for circulated pieces is only 35 to 45 coins. The date didn’t circulate widely and many pieces spent time in storage, accounting for the availability of Mint State coins. Thomas L. Elder was famous for repatriating $3s from banks and the like in the early years of the 20th century, and his efforts may have resulted in “several hundred” pieces dated 1879 and 1880 being sold to Chicago coin dealer Ben G. Green and collector John Beck.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the D. Brent Pogue Part III Auction, where it realized $35,250.