How and why did the US Mint decide on the size and dimensions for the American Gold Eagles and the American Gold Buffalos? I have several proof American Gold Eagles and the American Gold Buffalos in my collection, but they are in plastic capsules. Today I picked up one of the non proof American Gold Eagles. When I was showing it to my wife, next to an original $20 Saint Gaudens, I noticed the size difference. The AGE (and the Buffalos) have a smaller diameter than either the $20 Saint Gaudens or a $20 Liberty Head, and they are thicker than either. Does anyone know why? While we are on the topic of size and dimensions, was anyone else surprised by the diminutive diameter of last year's UHR coin? I made a trip to the Smithsonian earlier this year and saw the original UHR so I guess it is correct in size, but I must admit that I was a little disappointed when I received it. I thought I would be receiving a coin with the same diameter as a Saint Gaudens, and from what I've read (in the little booklet that came with the 2009 UHR coin) the US Mint did a 34 mm UHR coin prior to trying the 27mm version. Both versions were scrapped because of technical difficulties which the US Mint overcame through technical advances over time that allowed them to issue the 2009 UHR coin. Now that I see that the US Mint has no problem being untrue to original dimensions (the size difference between the Saint Gaudens and the GAE), I wonder why the US Mint didn't shoot for the full size 34 mm version when they did the 2009 UHR?
This is EXACTLY what I was thinking when i recieved my UHR coin last year!!! I thought ... where is the rest of the coin! Very disappointing.
Well for one, the "Saint" has filler materials (copper & silver), less than an ounce of pure gold. The Buffalo is 24 carat nothing but gold. The AGE, has filler materials like the Saint, but, has more gold than the saint. Exactely one ounce. The ultra high was struck on two seperate half ounce blanks squished together. One pure ounce, only the size of a half ounce coin though. Hope this helps CLAW
Most definitely! I'd buy one. Claw is correct. I read that they put two $10 planchets together to make the original UHR coin. If you stack a $10 indian on top, you can see they are the same diameter.
To answer your original question, the size and dimensions of the AGE were based on the size and dimensions of the Krugerrand.
I was just reading about the 1907 UHR Gold Coin in this book "100 Greatest American Coins" available here ... http://www.amazon.com/100-Greatest-...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276340235&sr=8-1 And they described how there was a lot of experimentation at the U.S.Mint in 1907 and one of the experiments was to produce a $20 UHR gold coin at 1/2 the diameter (the diameter of the $10 gold piece) and twice the thickness. An original 1907 1/2 diameter, 2x thickness $20 St. Gaudens gold coin can be viewed in the Smithsonian Coin Collection Exhibit in Washington DC. There was some legal issues (then as now) since apparently it's illegal to produce two denominations using the same diameter planchets, so it's speculated that the coin was originally made in 1907 as a novelty. The mint's 2009 minting of the UHR gold coin was a recreation of this old rarity. This is news to me as I always thought the original 1907 UHR Gold Coin was of standard diameter (with the rest of the $20 St Gaudens gold pieces) -- and the restrike of this coin in 2009 was done using 1/2 diameter planchets on a whim.
It's not filler. It's 21 carat gold alloy. Remember these coins were meant to circulate and thus they alloyed it with another metal to harden up the coin. Pure gold is too soft. This is also the reason you almost never see pure gold jewelry. American gold coins originally used crown gold. This was an alloy of 90% gold and 10% silver and copper. Some time before the start of the 19th century, they removed the silver and the coins were gold and copper. I 1 ounce gold coin still had 1 ounce of gold, but it weighs more than 1 ounce. The current American Gold Eagle uses this same composition. The gold alloy was pretty much the standard for all gold coins until the Canadians came out with the 24 carat gold maple. Since then, most mints have come out with competing coins. The US Mint's pure gold coin is the Buffalo.
