The same law of February 21, 1853 that lightened the silver coins also authorized a gold coin worth three dollars. Why is still argued over. One explanation, repeated since the 19th century, is that it matched the new 3-cent postage rate: a sheet of one hundred 3-cent stamps, or a roll of silver 3-cent pieces, could be paid for without touching the unpopular copper cents. Other writers point instead to the flood of California gold and to the gold interests that wanted it used.
Chief Engraver James B. Longacre had a free hand with the design for the first time. He chose an Indian princess for Liberty, wanting a symbol drawn from America rather than from Greece or Rome, and gave the reverse a wreath of crops grown in both the North and the South. To keep the coin from being taken for a quarter eagle, he struck it on a thinner, wider blank.
The Mint delivered 15 proofs on April 28, 1854 and went on to strike 138,618 coins at Philadelphia that year, while New Orleans added 24,000 and Dahlonega 1,120. Neither southern branch struck the coin again, and Charlotte never used the dies it was sent. San Francisco struck it in 1855, 1856, 1857 and 1860. The coin was little used. It saw some service on the West Coast, where people paid in gold and silver, but in the East it disappeared once banks stopped paying out gold in December 1861, and it never came back. Philadelphia kept striking a few thousand a year because the Mint's policy was to coin every denomination annually.
After the Civil War most three dollar pieces were bought by collectors or given as presents. Larger batches in 1874 and 1878 were struck in expectation of the return to gold payments at the end of 1878, but the public showed little interest. In 1889 Mint Director James P. Kimball told Congress the coin served no useful purpose, and it was abolished, along with the gold dollar, on September 26, 1890. In the 1890s the Mint melted 49,087 unsold pieces.
