The 1870 is one of my favorite sleeper dates in the Three Dollar series. Only 3,500 were minted and this is actually a scarcer coin than a number of the ultra-low mintage dates from the 1880′s. This is a perfect coin for the grade with nice orange-gold color atop choice, frosty surfaces.   
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After a number of years of inactivity I’m noticing that the Three Dollar series is showing some activity again. Two kinds of coins are active right now: very high quality finest known or Condition Census examples and nice slider examples of scarcer dates; coins like this 1868. Only 4,850 were struck and while this is certainly not a rare date, it is a scarce enough one to deserve a higher premium over a common date than it currently merits.   
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One of the things about the Christmas/New Year’s holidays is that they are a time of remembrance. If you are a coin dealer (and if you’ve been one for as long as I have…) this is a good time to sit around and get all nostalgic about interesting coins that you have seen or sold. I originally thought about writing an article that talked about the great U.S. gold coins that I have sold over the years.   
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A question that I am often asked by new collectors is “which gold coins are popular?” I think this is a great question and one certainly deserving of a blog. I’m going to not only answer this question for each denomination, I’m going to give a few reasons why I think certain coins/types are or are not popular. I.   
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In their recent May 2009 Central States auction, Heritage sold a number of very important high grade Three Dollar gold pieces. These were from the American Princess collection which, to the best of my knowledge, was one of the top collections of business strike Three Dollar gold pieces to ever be assembled.   
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One of the things that’s fun about being a coin dealer is the variety of interesting numismatic items that come across your desk. Just yesterday, within the span of an hour, I handled a cleaned Extremely Fine High Relief double eagle, an interesting group of Dahlonega quarter eagles, a rare date Seated Liberty quarter dollar and what I believe is among the finest known 1884 Three Dollar gold pieces.   
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