 At the time of the authorization of the three-dollar piece, the Whig administration of Millard Fillmore was still in office, but two weeks later, Fillmore was succeeded by Democrat Franklin Pierce, and Mint Director George N. Eckert yielded his place to Thomas M. Pettit.Longacre submitted two designs to Pettit, and before the latter died on May 31, 1853, he selected one of the two; relief models quickly followed the approval.Longacre's models, both for the obverse and reverse, did not have lettering on them, as the legends and numbers were to be punched once a reduction was made.