The press run of 34,500 pieces is significantly higher than the $3 mintage in San Francisco the preceding year. Nearly 600 pieces of this variety can be found today. While Philadelphia Mint $3 pieces are rare after 1854, San Francisco coins are even more so. There is no known instance in which a numismatist in 1856 desired to save a freshly minted example, and not even the Mint Cabinet acquired mintmarked issues—the policy was simply to get one coin of each date, and that could be done by obtaining a Proof. Today, 1856-S $3s are few and far between in terms of Mint State examples, with only about two dozen or so examples found in true Mint State. Three came to light as part of the S.S. Central America treasure, two being of the Medium S variety.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the D. Brent Pogue Part III Auction, where it realized $54,050.