Wow! I had heard of the “half union” $50 gold coin that was proposed and then cancelled because the 2.7 troy oz coin would be too heavy and impracticable. Note: A $50 gold coin was minted for the Panama-Pacific exhibition. But I had NO clue that they actually discussed and planned a $100 gold “Union” coin! “In 1854, San Fransisco businessmen sent a petition to Secretary of the Treasury, James Guthrie, for a $50 coin to be struck due to the fact that no banknotes of any denomination circulated in California. Guthrie responded to the petition by introducing a measure to produce gold $50 and $100 coins, called half union and union, respectively. Although the measure passed the Senate on June 16, 1854, it was ultimately defeated in the House.” Obviously eventually people realized that walking around with a heavy 2.7 troy oz $50 gold coin was too cumbersome then walking around with a super heavy coin containing nearly 5 troy oz of pure gold was just downright impractical. Keep in mind the largest circulating gold coin at the time was the Mexican 50 peso which still weighs less than 1.5 troy oz so a 5 oz coin would just be bonkers! Even in Britain it would still be worth £20 in gold! Did anyone else know about this coin? I just wanted to share in case anyone out there didn’t know this (almost) existed like I didn’t know it did until recently.
If just one person is informed and finds it interesting then the post is worth it . If you want more information (spoiler: there isn’t a whole lot of information) there is a Wikipedia page which is where I got the quote I posted in my OP. How awesome would it be if they had gone through with it? Yes it would’ve been pretty dumb to do but boy would collectors love it. Especially with all the space available for the design! 5 troy oz can make a nice big flan. I bet they’d be selling for 6 digit prices easily even in VG condition and 7 digits in AU or better.
It should be noted that the coin pictured in the first post was never struck as a pattern. Morgan's designs for it were discovered in 2005 and a couple of private mints struck the type as a bullion round in both gold and silver.
I'm sure lots of folks have heard about or read about it as it's been mentioned numerous times on the forum over the years, in this thread for example - https://www.cointalk.com/threads/highest-circulation-denomination-coin-ever.340405/#post-3562974 And there are more if one cares to search for them. There was a pattern minted in 1877 that was a bit bigger than that even - https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces124032.html
Considering the minimal use of the Double Eagle with 1 ounce of gold....I have to believe this would have been strictly a collector item, used by the very rich, or mostly used to settle international trade.
But didn’t it say it was meant to be used in California because banknotes weren’t circulating there? I imagine $50 & $100 banknotes should have been (somewhat) common in big cities like NYC right? I just imagined these were used in their place.
Yeah, I would have envisioned them never leaving their bank bags, sitting untouched in bank vaults around the world, much like our double eagles did. It would have been basically a bullion settlement of accounts coin. Still would have loved for them to have been made and own a few.
I agree but it was noted that the size would it inconvenient to carry in ones pocket; "the 2.7 troy oz coin would be too heavy and impracticable" However it was requested by the business community; "San Fransisco businessmen sent a petition to Secretary of the Treasury, James Guthrie, for a $50 coin to be struck due to the fact that no banknotes of any denomination circulated in California."
I was just imagining like businesses having these to pay for things like imports & inter business commerce among different businesses and stuff like that. So even though it probably wouldn’t be popular with the average consumer I imagine it would do pretty well for business use. If farmer Joe in California wants to buy a tractor and some seeds & fertilizer I can imagine him using these in place of banknotes that weren’t accepted. But a woman taking one of these to the general store to buy groceries? Unlikely xD
