Owner Comments:
The coin on the left is the 1849 "No L, Small Head" variety. This was one of first gold dollars that were made for circulation. The piece on the right is the 1849 "With L, Large head" with the open wreath. A later modification closed the wreath to a position closer the large "1" on the obverse.
The gold dollars that the U.S. mint system issued before the Civil War were perhaps the most successful one dollar coins that the United States has issued. At the time of their introduction, there was no federally issued paper money. The only other pieces available in the dollar denomination were the silver dollar and privately issued bank notes. People found the silver dollar too large and cumbersome to use. And once large quantities of gold began pouring in from California, a silver dollar contained more than a dollar’s worth of silver which resulted hoarding and melting. The bank notes were of doubtful value and merchants usually accepted them only at a discount below a dollar. Therefore for the gold dollar was the most reliable piece of money in that denomination.
Given its popularity, gold dollars from the 1850s saw a lot of circulation. Today the coins are often seen in Very Fine condition. In later years (the 1870s and ‘80s) gold dollars seldom saw much use, and most of the survivors are in Mint State or very close to it.
The one problem with the gold dollar was its size. The tiny coins were easily lost, and the tiny space for design work offered an excellent opportunity for counterfeiters to play their trade. Although some counterfeit gold dollars have been made to fool collectors, a fair number of the bad pieces are contemporary counterfeits that made to circulate in the mid 19th century. In 1854 the diameter of the gold dollar was increased in an effort to make it more suitable for circulation.