Three-quarters of the way through the 19th century, the U.S. Mint managed to create a remarkable series of rarities with the memorable date of 1875. The coinage emphasis in that year was large-denomination silver coins and double eagles. Gold and silver coins had not circulated in any significant way since the Civil War year 1862, but the government was gearing up for the 'parity' between gold and silver coins and paper currency that was expected to take place in January 1879. Accordingly, the double eagle was produced to the extent of more than 1.6 million pieces at three mints, complementing more than 5 million Liberty Seated quarters and 10 million Seated halves.      

Except for the double eagle, all of the 1875 gold coin issues were struck in minuscule quantities, all of them are great rarities today. In the case of the gold dollar, the mintage was a skimpy 400 business strikes, plus 20 proofs, one of the lowest mintages of any 'regular-issue' U.S. coin. Akers makes these cogent comments in his still-useful 1975 reference on the gold dollar series:  

{blockquote}'With so low a mintage, essentially all specimens are 'first strikes' and therefore invariably have full proof-like surfaces. This has given rise to the false notion that the 1875 gold dollar is more common in proof than it is in uncirculated condition. Most cataloguers have mistakenly called Uncs. 'proofs' over the years, as one can readily see from the auction records below ... . Actually, the Uncs. are readily distinguishable from the proofs because all uncirculated 1875 gold dollars have a small thorn-like projection from the throat into the field. This projection is seen only on the Uncs., not on the proofs, and no matter how much a particular 1875 may look like a proof, if it has the projection from the throat into the field, it is an Unc.'{/blockquote}       

Akers goes on to say that the proof is a great rarity and deserves recognition. However, the business strikes are quite rare as well, a rarity that increases with condition.