$1 Gold Coin: The Coin Of Many Faces.

The most popular gold coin in the United States is the $1 gold coin which was minted between 1849 and 1889. This is because of the fact that this coin has the smallest ever denomination when it comes to face value and it is also the smallest ever dollar coin to go in circulation. The Government of United States had no plans to introduce a gold coin but the two gold rushes made sure that gold had to be introduced in the national currency.

These coins are no more in open circulation today but they are considered to be prized booty for most coin collectors. The coins are so rare that the price of some of these coins can go as high as $300,000. If you are coin collector than you must know that the designs of these coins was changed three times and almost all the designs are considered to be a good addition to any gold coin collection.

Three designs of the coin:

On March 3, 1849, an Act was passed in this regard and soon the first $1 gold coin was out in circulation. The first type of coin was minted from 1849 to 1856. This design was created by James B. Longacre. The coin of this period has the Liberty head on its obverse side which is encircled by thirteen stars. The word 'LIBERTY' was inscribed on the coronet worn by the Liberty head.

The reverse side was way simpler, It just featured the words 'UNITED STATES OF AMERICA', value of the coin and its date. All these were encircled in a wreath. The design was minimalistic and the coin weighed just 1.672 grams. There was .900 gold and .100 copper in the coin. The coin was rather small and was lost easily. This lead to the introduction of a new design.

The second design called the Small Indian design was introduced in the 1854 coins. The most noticeable change in this coin was that the diameter of the coin was increased to 15mm from the earlier 13 mm. The Liberty head on the obverse was also put to rest. A new design depicting what is popularly known as an Indian princess was released. Experts however claim that the head depicted on the coin was based on 'Crouching Venus' statue in a museum in Philadelphia.

Another main change was that the inscription, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA was moved to the obverse face. The rest of design on reverse side of $1 gold coin remained unchanged. Since the coins were minted for two years only, they are very rare.

Within two years the design was to be changed again. In 1856, Large Indian head gold coin was introduced. This was the third design and only carried nominal differences from its predecessors. The head of the 'Indian Princess' was increased in size. The coin also became flatter. The last minting of the coin took place in 1889.

If you are able to distinguish the design of $1 gold coin, you can easily judge its value and can even locate counterfeits if you study the design very minutely.