Designed by: James Barton Longacre
Issue Dates: 1856-1889
Composition: 90% gold, 10% copper
Diameter: 15 mm
Weight: 1.67 grams (25.77 grains)
Edge: Reeded
Proof Mintage: 8,700 (estimated)
As the lowest denomination U.S. gold coin, the tiny gold dollar is the most commonly-found Proof gold coin today, mainly by virtue of the high mintages of the mid and late 1880s. Proofs of 1856 and 1857 are known, but as they were struck prior to the regular offerings of Proofs for collectors, they are decidedly rare with fewer than 10 of each date estimated to have survived. Regular records began in 1859, and despite fairly high mintage totals for the 1859-1861 period, it is believed that a good portion of the original mintage was melted after remaining unsold at year’s end. David Akers summed up the situation for the 1861: “Although the proof mintage (of 349) is more than double that of the 1860, the proofs of this year are scarcer than those of 1860 because the majority of them were melted in 1862. As a matter of fact, 1861 proof gold dollars are only slightly less rare than those of 1862, a year in which only 35 proofs were struck.”
With the lackluster Proof sales and the advent of the Civil War, Proof mintages were sharply curtailed for roughly the next 20 years or so, ranging from 20-50 pieces through 1880. Beginning in 1881, mintages steadily increased till 1,006 were recorded in 1884, and from that point through the end of production in 1889, Proof mintages remained above 1,000 pieces annually. This has left a fair number remaining for the collector market today, though perhaps not as high as one might expect as quite a few were lost to jewelry over the years.
While the most common-encountered Proofs today grade in the PR-64 to 66 range, enough PR-67’s exist so that a determined collector can usually find one. PR-68’s are the stopper, with only pieces from NGC occasionally offered on the market. Cameos and Deep/Ultra Cameos comprise a healthy chuck of the certified population, making up some 45% of PCGS’s total and about 60% of NGC’s.
Prices are reasonable (in the context of Proof U.S. gold of course) with Choice PR-63-64 examples trading in the mid-four figure range, PR-65s and 66s in the upper four-figure to very low five-figure range, and even PR-67s can generally be bought for under $25,000. These price ranges apply to the common dates of the late 1880s. Dates from the 1860s and 1870s will naturally be higher.
