 In 1889, Mint Director James P. Kimball sent a letter to the House of Representatives Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures urging the abolition of the three-dollar piece.Kimball wrote, "this is a denomination which serves no useful purpose, its present coinage being in fact limited to its production for cabinet [coin collecting] purposes.The value of over $153,000 in three-dollar pieces still on hand at the Mint at Philadelphia can not be disposed of, owing to the unpopularity of this coin as a circulating medium."