| Description: |
Warm honey gold with prooflike reflectivity and much mint lustre in protected areas.
Lightly circulated but devoid of serious marks. As the Bowers reference on the series
notes: "The 1881 three-dollar gold piece has been the apple of many collectors' eyes
for a long period of time. There are few things as enticing and irresistible as a low
mintage figure, and the number 500 shines like a beacon." Curiously, perhaps as many
as 120 or so circulation strikes of the date still remain, a goodly proportion of the
original mintage, with many of the survivors no doubt owing their availability to Thomas
L. Elder who obtained many of these from bank deposits after alerting tellers and cashiers
via letters as to just which American gold coins were rarities with a premium. An
altogether pleasing example of a popular rarity.
|
