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Three Dollar Gold Gold Three Dollars
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Three Dollar Gold
1854 to 1889
Three Dollar Gold
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About Three Dollar Gold Pieces
Perhaps the oddest denomination ever authorized by Congress, the three dollar gold piece stands out from all other regular issue coins created by the United States Mint. While no official reasoning for its proposal and existence is documented, it is believed to have been struck for the members of the population purchasing sheets of postage with a hundred stamps each which at the time had a face value and postal rate of three cents.
The coin is especially more curious when it is compared to the other gold coins that were authorized after the initial Mint Act of 1792. The Gold Dollar and Double Eagle were not included in the original recommendations set forth by Alexander Hamilton. They were only created after decades of requests by the public, particularly those involved in the mining industry. Furthermore, both of those denominations had precedents in the form of territorial gold, starting with the Gold Rushes in the Carolinas and Georgia and followed up by the California Gold Rush of 1849. Of all the territorial gold issues, there was never a coin bearing a face value of three dollars.