Gold Dollar -> 1857-C

Vitae

  • Gold Dollars 1849 - 1859
  • Type Three 1857 - 1859
  • Diameter: 14.3 millimeters
  • Fineness: .900
  • Weight: 25.8 grains
  • Designer: James Barton Longacre
  • Edge: Reeded
  • Coiner: ??

The Type Two gold dollar design proved to be a miserable failure. Another design was adopted in 1856. The Type Three coins were produced in Charlotte for only two years: 1857 and 1859. The 1857-C shows a quality of strike which is nearly as poor as that seen on the 1855-C. The planchets are among the worst seen on any coin from this mint. It is nearly impossible to find a piece which does not have considerable mint-made roughness in the fields. Of the 115 or so which exist, most grade from Very Fine to Extremely Fine. Fewer than two dozen About Uncirculated pieces are currently known and most of these are not choice. At this time, only two Mint state 1857-C gold dollars are accounted for.

Condition Census

  1. New York collection, ex Doug Winter, 11/96. Graded MS-61 by NGC.
  2. North Georgia collection, ex Stack's 12/94: 1167. Later graded MS-61 by NGC.
  3. Private collection, ex Superior 1/89: 262, Dr. Phillip Weinstein. Later graded AU-58 by PCGS.
  4. (tie) A group of approximately two-four coins which grade About Uncirculated-55. These include the following:
    • David Akers Numismatics John Jay Pittman sale, Part One (10/97): 878, ex Stack's George Walton sale (6/63): 28
    • Stack's James Stack sale, 10/94: 784. Later graded AU-58 by NGC.