The Gold Dollar Coin, or $1 Gold Dollar Coin-Liberty Head was a coin that had a variety of different version, to be exact it had three different ones. The first obverse had Liberty facing left wearing a headband that read “Liberty”. The second design changed drastically. It had a small Liberty head depicted as an American Indian princess, she wore a Indian headdress. Type 3 also had Liberty depicted as an Indian princess with a larger head. All of these designs were created by James B. Longacre. The reverse also had two different designs. Type one was a wreath that had the value of the coin in the center along with the mintage year. It also had “United States of America” surrounding it. Type two was very similar, it had a wreath with the coin value in the center and the mintage year under the value.
The Liberty Head $1 Gold Coin was minted partly because of the gold rush. The surge of gold had people calling for a new coin. The coin is made of 90% gold and 10% copper, it contains .04837 troy ounces gold. Type one had a separate size from type two and three. Type one was 12.7mm in diameter, type two and three were slightly larger with 14.3mm in diameter. All three types weighed the same, they had a weight of 1.672g, and they all had a reeded edge.
Furthermore the Liberty Head $1 Gold Coin was minted for 40 years. Specifically, it was minted from 1849-1889 and was minted in Philadelphia, Charlotte, Denver, New Orleans, and San Francisco, and Dahlonega. The mint marks were found directly below the wreath on the reverse of the coin. For collectors the cheapest you can find these coins are in very fine condition, all of them are a few hundred dollars, some of the prices reaching thousands of dollars. Some of the key dates that were minted in the series are the following:
1849-C Open Wreath Gold Dollar Coin-Liberty Head
1850-D Gold Dollar Coin-Liberty Head
1857-C Gold Dollar Coin-Liberty Head
1861-D Gold Dollar Coin-Liberty Head
1870-S Gold Dollar Coin-Liberty Head
1875 Gold Dollar Coin-Liberty Head