My first Double Eagle! :)

Great pics...love that gold color. Nice coin !!!

 

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Ain’t she grand?

 

Well done! Sweet coin I'm jealous (seriously )

 

At least two grand!

 

Beautiful Liberty Head Double Eagle! I don’t have one of those xD. First I want to finish the Indian set and I just need the $5 Indian to finish it. ^_^

 

Thanks!

No need to be jealous. If you want one bad enough you could get one too!

It took me quite a bit of saving lol. I had to resist the urge to buy some pretty sweet ancient Romans but I managed to resist!

 

Well I just read an article explaining why they all ended up in Europe. xD

According to numismatist David Lange, "the double eagle was a banker's coin intended to simplify transfers of large sums between financial institutions and between nations".

So it seems like it was never intended for housewives to do their grocery shopping lol.

BUT the Public Ledger (a Philadephia newspaper) made a good point!

"Twenty [silver dollars] are an encumbrance in a pocket ... if we are to have larger coins, let them be of gold. Along with the eagle, which has the size of the half dollar, we would recommend the double eagle, which [would be] of the size of our silver dollar, [and] would contain the value of twenty."

I put this to the test by putting 20 circulated Peace Dollars in my pocket.

My pants came down. They were right. It’s definitely an encumbrance.

 

Correct.....David Lange is a long-time NGC numismatist, BTW.

This is a common misconception because we tend to think that all "coins" are circulated by the public or used in everyday commerce. In fact, about 0.5% or so circulated at most as $20 in a gold coin was a large amount of money from 1849-1933 and holding paper currency was easier.

And a $20 bill is EVEN lighter !!

Just as $500 and $1,000 and larger denomination bills were not used by ordinary Americans but by the banking community, so too were Double Eagles. With the smaller gold coins, they did tend to circulate a bit more because using them to settle balance-of-payments transactions was not as easy as with $20 gold coins.

 

So does that mean the reason coins were used internationally is because other countries demanded gold rather than banknotes?

Afterall a $500 bill would be much easier and lighter than 25x $20 double eagles.

But I imagine back in those days foreign nations insisted on gold and didn’t trust banknotes.

I also read that many American gold coins were melted down and reminted into British sovereigns.

 

Roger Burdette's Saint-Gaudens book goes into this in-depth, just for you or anybody else who wants more information on this.

In fact, there were laws that stated that Gold Certificates needed to be backed by a certain percentage of gold coins/Double Eagles, and NOT gold bars, bullion ingots, etc.

Remember....that was more than HALF of an annual salary/earnings for most of the country in the 1920's....even more before then.

They were redeeming dollars for gold.

True. Not as much with other countries.

 

My first gold coins were bought in 2009. My first was a 1895 Liberty Head $10 Gold coin, graded NGC MS61. My second was a 1904 Liberty Head $20 Gold Coin. Graded (If you can call it that) UNC Details, Obverse Scratched. Both coin were taken to a coin show by my dealer. My dealer offered to buy them back including the cost to grade. My next gold coin (bought from the same dealer) MMIX Ultra High Relief One Ounce Gold Coin. It had been graded by PCGS MS68. I've been told by other collectors that they would sell the MMIX. I like it and I also like my Details gold coin.

 

They haven't made anything like it since so who knows WHEN or IF they will.

I would keep it unless you really need the $$$. I know I am.

 

I don't sell my coins. I like to look at them too much.

 

Congratulations Blake! Now you need to pop it out of there so you can fondle it and enjoy the weight of it... kidding! Sort of... everyone should hold one raw at some point.

What an interesting thread, though. I knew that these coins were primarily used for banking and international transactions, but not quite to the extent described here. Cool!

It makes me wonder about the stories that the occasional circulated examples could tell. I picked up a nicely-worn (probably VF) 1909-S $20 some time back just to have one that I could handle to my heart's content without worry of hurting its value.

Part of the appeal to me is that it was clearly a working coin that didn't hang out in a vault all its life. It's crazy to think about that amount of money changing hands so many times, the wealthy people that might have carried it, and what it might have bought. It also makes me wonder if this particular one remained in the US and laid low during the melts described here.

 

Thanks!

Its true I can’t hold it in my hand but I have held my 1 oz American Gold Eagles in my hand and I imagine the feeling is very similar.

 

That's one reason why some people have a worn, circulated bullion-only Saint or Liberty that they can hold in their hands without worrying about destroying numismatic value.

I think 1 or 2 people here posted that they did that.

 

So what about $10 gold pieces? How many of those are only still around because they were in European vaults?

For a long period the $10 gold piece was the highest denomination so I imagine a lot of them must have ended up there right?

If the world accepted the 1/4 troy oz British sovereign I can’t see why they wouldn’t accept the ~1/2 troy oz $10 gold eagle in international trade.

 

Does anyone happen to know why some St. Gaudens Double Eagles look different from others in color?

I’ve noticed some like mine have a yellowish gold color but others I’ve seen had an orange-ish/red-ish color to them.

Shouldn’t they all look identical in color if the alloy is the same?

 

We know there were some, but mostly it was Double Eagles that were bagged and transported. Smaller denominations meant more coins needed for the same amount of gold.

Smaller denominations also more likely to be held/saved by everyday Americans.

Double Eagles around since 1849.

They would, but it was easier for the U.S. to send Double Eagles. I'm sure there might be some sent but my readings indicate much much less than DE's.

Also, you suffer gold loss via abrasion more easily on smaller denomination coins.

 

No, many used different gold sources. The Philadelphia Mint on the East Coast often used different gold than that in Denver or San Francisco.

Also, the luster you see on a gold coin is the result of miscroscopic ridges -- like tiles on a roof -- upon which light reflects back. Add in the quality and depth of strike, and here's what you get from a 1908-S Saint.





Now, check out the poorly-struck 1908 No Motto Saint: