Ron Guth:
After more than two and a half decades of certification data, the 1863 $3 remains a relatively scarce date. There are many dates which are considerably more common (1854, 1874, and 1878), and not many that have lower populations. Dates that have similar certified populations include 1862, 1872, 1880, 1883, 1885, and 1886. Of this group, the dates in the 1880s all have substantially lowere mintages than the 1863, indicating that they were saved to a greater degree and, conversely, that the 1863 received less attention from collectors. This relationship is further confirmed by examining the quantities of Mint State survivors. For 1880, 1883, 1885, and 1886, Mint State examples represent a higher percentage of the total population than they do in 1862 and 1872, which means that collectors focused their attention more on the dates in the 1880s than they did in the 1860s and 1870s.
Clashed dies are common on this date, but early strikes can be found with no clashing.
Though Mint State examples of the 1863 $3 are scarce, they often come nice. Nearly a dozen examples have been certified MS65 or better by PCGS. The top examples rate MS68.