Only a few hundred business strike 1861 three dollar gold pieces are known from the original mintage of 5,959 pieces. This popular Civil War date is not rare in the higher circulated grades but most AU55 to AU58 pieces are bright from having been dipped and show poor eye appeal as a result.

This gem slider is lustrous ad shows just the slightest amount of wear on the high spots of the obverse and the reverse. The color is a pleasing medium lemon-gold while the surfaces lack the prominent horizontal die striations seen on many examples. There is some minor mint-made roughness in the field below AM in AMERICA.

An NGC AU58 with CAC approval sold for $5,581 as Heritage 11/14: 3251 and a nice non-CAC PCGS AU58 brought $7,638 as Heritage 7/14: 3908.

This piece has the appearance of an MS61 to MS62 at a greatly reduced price and it is exactly the sort of Civil War three dollar gold piece which is in demand amongst collectors of this series.

CAC has approved seven in this grade with only two finer.

Ex HA 2015 FUN: 6986 where it sold for $6,169.