In its early years, silver coins were being hoarded or exported, and the gold dollar found a ready place in commerce.

Gobrecht's design featured a Liberty cap surrounded by rays on one side, and a palm branch arranged in a circle with the denomination, date, and name of the country on the other.

"[5] Nevertheless, after Mint Director Patterson appeared before a congressional committee, the provision authorizing the gold dollar was deleted from the bill.

[6] In January 1844, North Carolina Representative James Iver McKay, the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, solicited the views of Director Patterson on the gold dollar.

Patterson had more of Gobrecht's pattern dollar struck to show to committee members, again advising against a coin that if issued would be only about a half inch (13 mm) in diameter.

He told Treasury Secretary John C. Spencer that the only gold coins of that size in commerce, the Spanish and Colombian half-escudos, were unpopular and had not been struck for more than twenty years.

The dollar was attacked by congressmen from the Whig Party, then in the minority, on the grounds that it would be too small, would be counterfeited and in bad light might be mistakenly spent as a half dime, the coins being similar in size.

[9] Pennsylvania Representative Joseph Ingersoll, a Whig, spoke against the bill, noting that Patterson opposed the new denominations, and that the idea had been repeatedly turned down, whenever considered.

Another Whig, Massachusetts's Charles Hudson, related that Patterson had sent a real and a counterfeit gold dollar to his committee and the majority of members had been unable to tell the difference.

[11] McKay made no answer to these claims, but others did, including New York Congressman Henry Nicoll, who assured the House that the counterfeiting allegations were greatly exaggerated.

The New York Weekly Tribune on May 19, 1849, described the new dollar as "undoubtedly the neatest, tiniest, lightest, coin in this country ... it is too delicate and beautiful to pay out for potatoes, and sauerkraut, and salt pork.

"[17] The North Carolina Standard hoped that they would be struck at the Charlotte Mint and circulated locally to eliminate the problem of small-denomination bank notes from out of state.

Approximately five of the 1849-C Open Wreath are known; one, believed the finest surviving specimen, sold at auction for $690,000 in 2004,[21] remaining a record for the gold dollar series as of 2013.

[28] As early as 1851, New York Congressman William Duer alleged that Patterson had made the gold dollar too small in diameter on purpose to provoke criticism.

To ensure that the three-dollar piece was not mistaken for other gold coins, it had been made thinner and wider than it would normally be, and Longacre put a distinctive design with an Indian princess on it.

The idea of making the gold dollar larger in this way had been suggested in Congress as early as 1852, and had been advocated by Pettit, but Guthrie's desire for an annular coin stalled the matter.

[26][32] To correct the problems, Longacre enlarged the head of Liberty, making it a scaled-down version of the three-dollar piece, and moved the lettering on the obverse closer to the rim.

[31][33] The Type 2 and 3 gold dollars depict Liberty as a Native American princess, with a fanciful feathered headdress not resembling any worn by any Indian tribe.

[37] Two pairs of dies were shipped from Philadelphia to Dahlonega on December 10, 1860; they arrived on January 7, 1861, two weeks before Georgia voted to secede from the Union, as the American Civil War began.

[38] Under orders from Governor Joseph E. Brown, state militia secured the mint, and at some point, small quantities of dollars and half eagles were produced.

[41] The outbreak of the Civil War shook public confidence in the Union, and citizens began hoarding specie, gold and silver coins.

In the rest of the nation, gold and silver coins could be purchased from banks, exchange agents, and from the Treasury for a premium in the new greenbacks the government began to issue to fill the gap in commerce and finance the war.

[43] Accordingly, although 1,361,355 gold dollars were struck in 1862—the last time production would exceed a million—the mintage fell to 6,200 in 1863 and remained low for the rest of the coin's existence, excepting 1873 and 1874.

Once specie again circulated at face value, the gold dollar found no place in commerce amid large quantities of silver coinage, either released from hoarding or newly struck by the Mint.

Proof mintages exceeded 1,000 by 1884, and remained above that mark for the remainder of the series, numbers likely inflated by agents of jewelers, willing to pay the Mint's premium of $0.25 per coin.

[47] James Pollock, in his final report as Mint Director in 1873, advocated limiting striking of gold dollars to depositors who specifically requested it.

"[48] His successors called for its abolition, with James P. Kimball, before he left office in 1889, writing to Congress that except as jewelry, "little practical use has been found for this coin".

[49] Later that year, the new director, Edward O. Leech, issued a report stating that the gold dollar "is too small for circulation, and ... [is] used almost exclusively for the purposes of ornament.

That journal in 1905 carried news of a customer depositing 100 gold dollars into a bank; the teller, aware of the value, credited the account with $1.60 per coin.

Yeoman's A Guide Book of United States Coins rates the least expensive gold dollar in very fine condition (VF-20) at $300, a value given for each of the Type 1 Philadelphia issues from 1849 to 1853.