1888 $3 PR(PCGS#8052)

Summer 2025 Global Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

3275

Grade

PR63

Price

12,600

Lot Description

This is an inviting representative of the quintessential type issue in the challenging Proof three-dollar gold series. Light haziness visits medium orange-gold surfaces that are fully original in preservation. Sharply impressed, softly frosted devices offer some contrast with reflective fields, although not quite enough to support a CAM designation from PCGS. Wispy handling marks do little more than define the grade; a couple of tiny nicks on Liberty's cheek are noted.<p>The 1888 has an unknown mintage that it usually listed as 291 pieces. According to Q. David Bowers and Douglas Winter in their 2005 reference on this series:<p><em>91 Proofs are verified as part of the total, with 1 coin delivered in February, 55 in March, 33 in May, and 2 in June. In addition, in April, 200 coins were to be delivered to the medal clerk, in charge of Proof coin sales, but were not delivered until July 19, and then for 'exchange,' whatever that meant. It is not certain if all of these were Proof strikings. If they were, the total production figure was 291, which seems slightly generous in view of the number estimated today. Possibly 291 were struck, but not all were sold. Nothing has been found in the literature to indicate an especially large collector demand for Proofs in this particular year.</em><p>The authors provide for 120 to 150 coins extant, <em>PCGS CoinFacts</em> estimates 150 to 200 survivors, and John W. Dannreuther (2018) offers a range of 110 to 130. The <em>PCGS CoinFacts</em> range, in particular, seems a bit high in our experience and is probably based, at least in part, on resubmissions swelling third party certification populations. One thing is certain - all Proof three-dollar gold pieces, irrespective of date or grade, are at very least scarce in an absolute sense, and very scarce to rare from a market availability standpoint. This offering for a fresh-to-modern market specimen is particularly desirable, as the coin traces its provenance to B. Max Mehl's celebrated George E. Chatillon Sale of 1938, through the collection of legendary numismatist Floyd T. Starr.