Featured A Brief Essay on the 1907 High Relief $20 Gold

I am mulling over the idea of MACGA or Make American Coins Great Again.

I'm also thinking about the transition from paper to hard Currency and thus how to incorporate the two so it would have at least some chance of actually happening.

One idea is to use the best designs of the past and this, $20 High Relief is certainly one of them.

Consider the possibility of using new technology to produce an ultra high relief Saint Gaudins $20 gold (colored - think an improved Sacawagea) coin to replace the $20 Bill. Wouldn't that be far preferable to Paper?

 

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I think you're confusing "hard currency" (PM or PM-backed) with "coin". A base-metal Saint, no matter how thick and glittery, still isn't "hard money" -- it'll still buy less in ten years than it will today.

Ever since the days of the Morgan dollar, Americans as a whole have chosen paper money over coins for large denominations. It's easier to carry, harder to lose. I don't like it either, but that's the way it is.

 

I am going to look for an AU58 at FUN January 2021.

Come on, MegaMillions and PowerBall !!

 

We had a 2009 UHR coin.

Nobody is going to utilize an $1,800 coin with a face value of $50 to transact business.

 

It’s a bucket list coin for me. Hoping for a really nice au 58 or ms 62/3 I’ll sacrifice a tiny rub or a few marks for good surfaces and luster. A bean wouldn’t bother me either. I figure when I’m going to get one it’ll probably be in the 12-16k range. Once my life sorts out and this Coronavirus crap dies down I may be able to afford it

 

I'm seeing nice AU58s for about $10K....MS63's are going to run $18K with BP. Maybe a bit cheaper but both prices are ex-CAC.

 

FORCED SELLING: Watch for any high-end sales of super-scarce Saint-Gaudens and maybe a drop in price over time for the 1907 High Relief in coming weeks/months.

Bigtime financial professional I track says he has been getting offers of blue-chip artwork (he's a bigtime collector) at "slashed prices."

I could see someone with a few coins selling them and raising a few hundred thousand dollars.

 

If people are selling everything -- stocks, bonds, metals -- to raise cash, I can't see why coins or fine art would be any different. Real estate, either, although it's harder to dump that quickly in a panic.

 

Yup, you need a few hundred thousand and you know real estate takes a few weeks or months. Maybe longer.

But if you have some valuable coins or artwork you can sell it and maybe keep it from the IRS.

 

Oh, that kind of "selling it".

 

SOLD !!

An NGC MS63 CAC was sold on GC today for $15,400 (ex-bp)...so about $17,000 including the BP.....lots of bidders and plenty of activity AFTER the economy and markets took a tumble so it wasn't like it was stale bids from a month ago before the virus hit bigtime.

This auction lasted over 2 months....I still don't get why GC auctions can last that long. Takes forever to complete.....

 

If the current situation continues, the High Relief will be one of the first coins to fall in price because the supply of them is quite large for a very high priced coin.

Having said that the actual grade, not the slab grade, can influence prices. Also some pieces with copper stains, even if they are light, get discounted because some collectors avoid them. I learned that when I was a dealer.

 

Agreed, John. Very easy to raise $10K (AU58) or $50K (MS65) fairly easily in one fell swoop. Much easier than selling a whole bunch of coins.

Yup, although it seems to me that the instances of overgradin are few and far between on the 1907 HR. But I'm sure you've seen more than me in your career.

Yup....copper spots not as big on a semi-bullion piece or a lower-priced Saint....but forking over 5-figures you're gonna want something pristine or pristine-looking, or else you'll discount the price.

 

Beautiful coin

 

Yes beautiful coin, but completely impractical.

 

A Quick professional dip will remove small copper stains. My LCD dipped my Chinese Panda removed the red spot and I got a good grade too.

 

There are two problems with that solution.

First, many copper stains are more than skin deep. You can dip them today, but a few years from now, they might come back.

Second, when you dip a gold coin to get rid of copper stain you don’t like, you may well remove the original toning that many collectors do like. Some gold collectors are absolutely fanatical about original color and will reject any coin that has the “white gold” look, which is a sign that it has been dipped.

Here is an example. It’s nice, tough Charlotte coin with a lot of “meat,” but some collectors will say, “It has no character.”



Generally I prefer to leave the copper stains and have an orignal coin, but I have not carved that opinion is stone as some have. I do own this 1842-C half eagle.

 

John, could you talk more about the "white gold" effect and maybe post a coin that shows it quite easily ?

 

I enjoy your write-ups also. Two quick questions:
(1) What does the "C" below the roman numeral date stand for?
(2) I read somewhere once that when Barber learned that there was to be competition, he went ahead and proposed his own Double Eagle design. Do you know if that was true?

 

I believe it’s not a C, but the designer’s initials - ASG. See https://saintgaudensdoubleeagle.com/saint-gaudens-double-eagle-design/