1854 $3 Indian Princess Head.

The 3 Dollar Piece, a Unique Money

Regia Marinho
3 min readJan 26, 2022

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The three-dollar piece was a gold coin.

It was produced by the United States Bureau of the Mint from 1854 to 1889.

And it was authorized by the Act of February 21, 1853. The coin was designed by Mint Chief Engraver James B. Longacre.

As you can see on the top image, the obverse shows a representation of Lady Liberty wearing a headdress of a Native American princess and the reverse a wreath of corn, wheat, cotton, and tobacco.

The obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics.

The obverse means the front face of the object and the reverse means the back face.

Also, the obverse of a coin is commonly called heads because it often depicts the head of a prominent person, and the reverse tails.

Because the $3 pieces haven’t been printed since the 1800s, they aren’t considered real money with any value.

A gold three-dollar coin was produced in the 1800s, but no three-dollar bill has ever been produced.

But, some fake US$3 bills have been released over time.

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Regia Marinho

I publish tech, art, food, AI, AR, architecture, interior design, fashion, and photography articles. Ideas to inspire the world through art. @regiaart