Dealing With the Scarcity and Rarity of US Gold Coins
Muna wa Wanjiru asked:
I’m fairly fascinated with US gold coins and their history, unfortunately for me it’s a fairly expensive hobby as well as being a fascinating one. I do persevere though as much as I can and try to get my hands on as many gold coins as my budget allows me to! Gold has been used in some form or other throughout the history of the world in many ways and in many forms. From simple gold nuggets to US gold coins to gold bars and even gold biscuits, gold has literally made the world go around.
At least that was the case for mass circulation up until very recently in the twentieth century. At which point I’m afraid that gold was taken out of the loop as a means of daily monies and replaced with other things such as copper, nickel and paper. And whereas with gold it was the intrinsic value that was taken into account when any trading was done, with paper money, it’s the promise of the value to be paid by the government that makes this particular world turn around.
It’s an interesting idea and one which bears further exploration, especially if you’re more into the numismatics side if things instead of solely into coin collecting. And yes, that was a mouthful of a word and I hope you’ll forgive me for throwing it around! However, it needed to be said, and if you don’t feel up to getting your mouth around it I suggest you leave it for now. Even now, after hearing the word spoken and having read and written about it, I still find it hard to get my tongue around it with any sort of dignity.
If I don’t give it due consideration before I speak – the word, not the actual practice of it – I find myself uttering a mouthful of utter gibberish and end up looking like a total dimwit. So take heart and don’t give up hope – if you do like the numismatic side then you have all the time in the world to learn to say it properly.
Unfortunately US gold coins were stopped being minted in 1933 during the depression era in an attempt to bring the US out of its slump. It was then made illegal for anyone to hold any gold bullion or US gold coins, and most gold coins were recalled and melted.
Luckily for the coin collector of today, there were a few hardy coins still surviving and most of these I have to say were probably lurking somewhere overseas. That leads us to where we are now with US gold coins – scarcity and rarity.
To better give you an example of what I’m talking about, a 1933 US Saint Gaudens Gold Eagle went for a whopping seven and a half million dollars. Don’t get your hopes up though, it doesn’t mean that your US gold coins will go for the same price or even a fraction of it.
What it does mean though is that some coins are still rarer than others and more in demand. US gold coins were minted until 1933 but even after the ban was lifted on gold bullion and gold coin ownership in the 1970’s no more US gold coins were minted that would go into circulation.
Ian
I’m fairly fascinated with US gold coins and their history, unfortunately for me it’s a fairly expensive hobby as well as being a fascinating one. I do persevere though as much as I can and try to get my hands on as many gold coins as my budget allows me to! Gold has been used in some form or other throughout the history of the world in many ways and in many forms. From simple gold nuggets to US gold coins to gold bars and even gold biscuits, gold has literally made the world go around.
At least that was the case for mass circulation up until very recently in the twentieth century. At which point I’m afraid that gold was taken out of the loop as a means of daily monies and replaced with other things such as copper, nickel and paper. And whereas with gold it was the intrinsic value that was taken into account when any trading was done, with paper money, it’s the promise of the value to be paid by the government that makes this particular world turn around.
It’s an interesting idea and one which bears further exploration, especially if you’re more into the numismatics side if things instead of solely into coin collecting. And yes, that was a mouthful of a word and I hope you’ll forgive me for throwing it around! However, it needed to be said, and if you don’t feel up to getting your mouth around it I suggest you leave it for now. Even now, after hearing the word spoken and having read and written about it, I still find it hard to get my tongue around it with any sort of dignity.
If I don’t give it due consideration before I speak – the word, not the actual practice of it – I find myself uttering a mouthful of utter gibberish and end up looking like a total dimwit. So take heart and don’t give up hope – if you do like the numismatic side then you have all the time in the world to learn to say it properly.
Unfortunately US gold coins were stopped being minted in 1933 during the depression era in an attempt to bring the US out of its slump. It was then made illegal for anyone to hold any gold bullion or US gold coins, and most gold coins were recalled and melted.
Luckily for the coin collector of today, there were a few hardy coins still surviving and most of these I have to say were probably lurking somewhere overseas. That leads us to where we are now with US gold coins – scarcity and rarity.
To better give you an example of what I’m talking about, a 1933 US Saint Gaudens Gold Eagle went for a whopping seven and a half million dollars. Don’t get your hopes up though, it doesn’t mean that your US gold coins will go for the same price or even a fraction of it.
What it does mean though is that some coins are still rarer than others and more in demand. US gold coins were minted until 1933 but even after the ban was lifted on gold bullion and gold coin ownership in the 1970’s no more US gold coins were minted that would go into circulation.
Ian
