"The Mint apparently favored certain Philadelphia dealers in the distribution of the gold dollar, but the three-dollar piece could be obtained without a premium at the cashier's window of the Philadelphia Mint.Large numbers of the 1879 three-dollar piece (mintage 3,000 for circulation), 1880 (1,000), and 1881 (500) were hoarded by early coin collector and dealer Thomas L. Elder, who asked bank tellers to look out for them.