I can’t think of a single branch mint gold coin which has performed as poorly from a price perspective as the 1855-C gold dollar. Back around 2005-2008, these routinely traded in AU55 for $10,000-12,000. Today, certain pieces in AU55 holders now bring only $5,000-5,500.

Why did this important one-year type coin drop so much in value? The answer is not as cut and dry as it might seem.

Before I answer this question, let’s take a quick look at the background of the 1855-C gold dollar. As with the 1855-O, 1855-D, and 1856-S, this is an important one-year type. Being the only Type Two gold dollar from Charlotte should make this a pretty in-demand issue, right? Furthermore, this issue has a reasonably low mintage of 9,803 with an estimated 250-300 examples known in all grades.

But there is an inherent problem with this issue: it is easily amongst the worst-struck of all Federal gold coins, regardless of mint. The typical 1855-C gold dollar is difficult to grade; even for a trained professional. At least 75% of all known pieces are found on poorly prepared planchets, and essentially every known 1855-C shows incomplete detail at the centers. You have to grade an 1855-C based on its luster and not its detail. This is all well and good, except what happens when people start stripping the vast majority of examples and simulating mint luster through chemical brightening agents?

The answer is that you get Extremely Fine 1855-C gold dollars that magically gradeflate into AU55s. A coin which is seemingly rare suddenly becomes “common.” This is evidenced by the fact that as of February 2021, NGC had graded 39 examples in AU55 (along with another 55 in grades higher than this). As a comparison, PCGS had graded a more realistic 13 in AU55 with 12 finer.

Here is an image of an NGC AU55 which brought a low price of $5,040 when sold as Lot 3763 in the February 2019 Heritage sale.

*1855-C PCGS AU55, courtesy of Heritage*

Now compare this with the PCGS/CAC AU55 which brought $17,684 when sold as Lot 15908 in the Heritage April 2017 sale.

This is not an indictment of NGC’s grading as there are a number of PCGS graded examples of this date which I don’t care for, and there are some NGC graded 1855-C examples which I really like.

An important point to consider is that there are two varieties of 1855-C gold dollar. The scarcer of the two, Winter-1, tends to come flatly struck at the centers but is fairly sharp at the borders and is found on generally good quality planchet. The more common Winter-2 tends to come a bit better detailed but has more noticeable clashmarks and is almost always found on terrible planchets. Given the choice between the two, most collectors would rather have a nice example of the first variety than of the second.

Since the market has determined that a nice 1855-C gold dollar—in virtually any grade—is worth at least two times (if not even three times) more than a crappy one, it seems to me that something needs to be done to help a collector determine which is which.

I’ve got a suggestion: why not have the grading services distinguish between the Winter-1 and Winter-2 varieties; sort of like they do with 1922-D and 1922 “Plain” Pennies? PCGS and NGC could take all 1855-C gold dollars and re-holder them as “sharp strike” and “weak strike” or “choice planchet” and “typical planchet.”

Of course, this is never going to happen so it is up to the collector to become familiar with the appearance characteristics of this issue.

If you are a collector seeking a nice 1855-C, you’ll want to wait for a coin which has original color. You’ll likely not find one with choice surfaces, so you’ll have to make the determination about how much planchet disturbance you can handle. I’d say that holding out for a PCGS/CAC coin makes the most sense; you’ll have to figure out how much of a premium you’ll want to pay for such a coin.

Gold Dollars